Attack of the Walkers
by AquaDestinysEmbrace
Summary: While Jeremy and the gang visit his cousin Patrick in Atlanta, Georgia, they get caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse! Follow them as they team up with a man named Lee, a girl named Clementine, and others as they travel in an attempt to survive the apocalypse.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a normal day in Atlanta, Georgia. Jeremy Belpois sighed and looked up at the sky. A few months after his cousin, Patrick Belpois, moved to the United States, his aunt and uncle had invited him and the rest of the gang to stay for vacation. At first, he didn't want to go, because he was afraid that XANA would attack. It took nearly all of his friends to convince him to go. Before they practically dragged him to the airport, he threw his laptop into his bags so he could check and see if XANA was causing any trouble back at home.

He sighed as he remembered that moment before closing his lap top.

His friends and cousin ran over to him.

"Hey Einstein! Why aren't ya enjoying the nice Atlanta weather?", Odd asked. "All ya ever do is type on that computer."

"I'm not in the mood to enjoy the weather right now Odd," replied Jeremy.

"Oh come on, Jer! You need to get off your butt and do something fun!", William said.

"Not right now guys," he said.

Aelita smirked and took his glasses off without warning and ran away.

"Hey!", he cried out in surprise. "If you want 'em, you'll have to come and get 'em!", the roseette cried out.

He got what she meant and smirked. "Oh, I'll come and get them alright," he said before he started chasing her. "Come here you!", he shouted playfully.

Aelita laughed a little bit before giving the glasses to Anne, who was the most hyperactive of the group.

"What?! Now it's a game of keep away?", asked Jeremy.

"Hey, you wouldn't get off your butt, so this is what you gotta deal with," Anne said before dashing away with the glasses while making sure her favorite hat stayed on her head.

"Catch me if you can!", she teased as she kept running.

Jeremy chased her around and tried to keep up as she made a turn around a corner.

"Yo Patrick! Heads up!", Anne hollered as she tossed the glasses to Patrick.

"Come and get 'em cuz!", the pale boy shouted as he was chased by Jeremy.

Jeremy ran as fast as he could to keep up with his cousin. After a couple minutes of running, Jeremy dived and managed to tackle Patrick by the ankles and they fell into a bush.

He smirked and grabbed his glasses. "I'll be taking that," he said as he put them back on.

Once they got up, Patrick noticed something.

"Hey, what's that?", he asked pointing down a hill in the woods. Ulrich and Odd walked over to them. "What?", Odd asked. "There, in the woods," Patrick said.

Jeremy looked closely and saw something on the ground.

"Hmm... guys, stay here. We'll go check this out," Ulrich said to the others as the four of them went into the forest. They walked about ten feet and stopped short when they saw what was in front of them.

"Holy sh**," muttered Ulrich.

On the ground was a man wearing a biking outfit. The man wasn't moving.

Odd grabbed a stick and poked it.

Nothing happened.

"Yep. He's de-"

Before Odd could finish, a growling noise came from the man.

They backed away in surprise as the man pushed himself up.

He turned and looked at them while snarling. His skin was rotted and his eyes were white. He then began to crawl towards them.

"G-get away from us!", Jeremy shouted in fear as he tripped and fell down. He backed away as the man crawled closer to him.

Before he could grab him, Ulrich quickly grabbed a huge branch that had fallen off a tree and hit the man on the head hard. He repeatedly hit him over and over until he stopped moving. Jeremy gagged at the sight of the blood pouring onto the ground. Patrick then yanked him back up to his feet.

"RUN!", Ulrich said as they turned on their heels and ran out of the woods.

"Dude, we heard something growling. What the h**l happened back there?", Ben said as the four boys ran out of the woods.

"This might sound crazy, but we were just attacked by a freakin' ZOMBIE!", Odd shouted.

"Huh? You sure you didn't hit your head back there?", Yumi asked in a doubtful tone.

"But it's true! We saw it!", Patrick said.

Suddenly they heard some groaning coming from the woods.

"What the-?", asked Tim as two zombies came out of the bushes.

"HOLY CRAP!", shouted William.

"Now you guys believe us?!", Jeremy asked with a slight hint of annoyance in his voice.

Yumi nodded.

"RUN LIKE H**L!", Odd shouted as the gang ran away from the increasing number of zombies.

As they ran towards a fence, they used a trashcan as support and climbed over the fence and landed in an alley. They heard the zombies growling behind them and leave.

They breathed a sigh of relief. "Lucky for us zombies are stupid enough that they can't climb, right?", Patrick said to no one in paticular.

"Excuse me," a voice said out of nowhere making them shout and jump in surprise. In front of them was an African American man and a little girl wearing a cap with a D on it.

"Sorry if I scared you," he said apologizing.

"It's OK," said Ulrich.

"Who are you?", asked Aelita.

"Name's Lee and this is Clementine," the man said gesturing to the girl.

"Clementine? That's a cute name," Aelita said with a smile.

"She your daughter?", asked Jeremy.

"Nah. I found her in her backyard hiding from the zombie in her house," Lee said.

"Wait. You were attacked by one too?", Ulrich asked in surprise.

Lee nodded. "Her babysitter was turned into a zombie and it almost got me but I managed to kill it."

"Well, we were attacked by zombies while we were playing a game of keep away with Jeremy's glasses. I'm Ulrich by the way," Ulrich said introducing himself. "The scrawny one in purple is Odd."

"I am svelte!", Odd said in annoyance.

"I'm Jeremy and this is my cousin Patrick."

"Name's William."

"Yumi."

"Ben and this is my younger brother Tim."

"The name's Anne."

"I'm Aelita."

"Nice to meet ya," Lee said with a small smile. "Ya'll from here?"

"Patrick is. The rest of us are from France. We came here with Jeremy to visit Patrick," Aellita replied.

"Hm. You might not wanna go anywhere now with those Walkers out there now," said Lee.

"Walkers?", asked Yumi.

"Yeah. Don't you think it's better than zombies?", he asked. Yumi shrugged.

Suddenly they heard the sound of two men grunting.

"Man. I ain't gonna get home to mama now," one of them muttered.

Lee walked out of the alley and said, "Hey! You two need a hand over there?"

The one with the white T-shirt panicked. "Ah! Don't eat us!", he pleaded.

"Relax. We're not one of them," Jeremy said as they walked out of the alley and joined Lee.

The one with the brown jacket breathed a sigh of relief.

"We need some help here," said Lee.

"You guys trying to get outta here? Cause you should be with all those things walking around. I'm Shawn. Shawn Greene," the man said introducing himself. "Lee and this is Clementine, Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, Patrick, Ulrich, Yumi, William, Anne, Ben, and Tim."

The man in the white T-shirt nodded and knelt down to Clementine's level.

"I'm Chet," he said. Clementine nodded shyly before hiding behind Lee.

"We shouldn't be out in the open where those walkers can see us. Hmm... how bout this? You guys help get this car outta the way and we'll give you, your daughter, and you guys a lift to my family's farm where it's safe," Shawn offered. "Oh, I'm not her dad. I'm just some guy," Lee said.

"Some guy?", asked Shawn. Lee nodded.

Shawn glanced over at Clementine.

"So she's alone?" Clementine nodded. Shawn looked at the gang. "And you?"

"My parents are out of town and my cousin and his friends here are stayin' with me," Patrick replied.

"We better get you guys outta here," he said.

Chet turned around and gasped. "It's them monsters again!", he shouted.

The gang turned around and saw that almost a dozen walkers were coming towards them. Shawn quickly ran over to the car blocking the road and began pushing it.

"Help me out here!", he shouted to them.

Lee, Ulrich, William, and even Clementine, ran over and helped him push the car out of the way.

"Everybody in!", Shawn ordered as he, Lee, and Clementine got into the front while Chet and the Lyoko Warriors hopped into the back.

They held on tightly as Shawn slammed his foot on the accelerator and they sped out of the town.

"For some guy, you saved a lot of lives today," Shawn said to Lee without taking his eyes off the road.

A few hours later...

It had gotten dark. The group in the back was just chilling out. In the front, Lee and Clementine sat next to each other. After a few more minutes of driving, the truck stopped in front of a house with a barn near it.

Chet hopped out first. "I gotta go Shawn. It's hot dish night back at home and mama's gonna blow a gasket if I don't get home soon," he said.

"OK. Guess I'll catch ya tomorrow night," Shawn said.

Chet turned to the gang.

"Well it was nice meeting ya'll," Chet told them. They waved goodbye as he walked into the dark.

"You think he's gonna be OK?", Aelita asked Jeremy.

"No idea," he replied.

Suddenly, the porch light came on and a man in a green outfit stepped out of the house.

Shawn smiled. "Hey dad," he greeted.

"I'm so glad you're OK," the man said smiling at him before turning to the group behind Shawn.

"I see you've brought some guests," he said. "We need a place to stay," Lee said.

"Just you and your daughter and those kids then?", Shawn's dad asked.

"He's not her dad. He's just some guy that found her and rescued her from the monsters," Shawn said. "And these guys are friends of this kid's cousin," he said as he gestured to Jeremy.

His dad thought about it for a minute.

"Alright. Ya'll can stay. But just for tonight. I got a family of three sleeping in the barn right now," he said.

"Thanks," Lee said. "Hold on. Lemme take a look at that leg," Shawn's dad said, noticing that Lee had been limping.

After a few minutes, he had fixed up Lee's leg a little bit. "It should start feeling better by tomorrow," he told him.

Lee nodded thanks before they walked into the barn. Like Shawn's father said, there were three people in the barn fast asleep.

They got the blankets and pillows they were given and spread them out.

"Well, night guys!", Odd said before falling asleep, despite the smell.

Ulrich rolled his eyes before lying down.

"I miss my mom and dad," Clementine said to Lee.

"I bet Clem," he said.

"How far is Savannah?", she asked. Lee thought about it for a moment. "Pretty far."

"Oh. OK," she said before falling asleep. "Why'd she ask that?", Aelita asked. "Her parents are in Savannah," he said. "Oh," the rosette said before drifting off to sleep.

The next day...

"Hey, get up," a voice said.

They groaned and woke up to see a man wearing a white T-shirt, jeans, and a cap. He also had a mustache.

Clementine was already standing up. "Ugh, I'm itchy," she complained a little bit as she scratched her arms.

"Well, you slept in a barn little lady. Lucky you don't have any spiders in your hair," the man said with a smile.

Clementine gasped and quickly checked her hair for spiders when he said that.

"But I bet your daddy scared them all away, huh?", he asked. "Oh, he's not her dad," Yumi said.

"Name's Lee," Lee said getting up.

"I'm Kenny," the man said. Suddenly a boy around 10 years old peeked out from one of the barn doors.

"Hey Dad! We're gonna go build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!", the boy said before running towards the house.

"We better hurry up or he won't let us hear the end of it," Kenny said with a sigh before the gang followed him outside.

"That's my son, Ken Jr., but we call him Duck," Kenny said.

Jeremy smirked a little. "Dodging or quacking?", he asked.

"Quacking," answered Kenny.

"DAAAD!"

"Ya see what I mean?"

They walked over to Duck, who was with a woman wearing a shirt with flowers on it and brown jeans.

"Hershel told us that you guys are headed to Macon," Kenny said.

"My family's from there," Lee said.

"Well, Macon's on the way and personally I'd appreciate the company of people that can knock some heads together," Kenny said.

Lee gave a small smile. "Let's see what the girl wants first," he said. Kenny nodded.

"Ah, gotta see what the missus wants, huh?"

Lee knelt down. "What do you think?" Clementine nodded her head yes.

"Katjaa and Duck, this is Lee and... uh, what're the kids names again?"

"The little one is Clementine. The one in purple is Odd, the one with the green jacket is Ulrich, the one with the glasses is Jeremy, the girl in black is Yumi, the pale one is Jeremy's cousin, Patrick, the one with the brown jacket is William, the girl that's wearing the black flannel shirt and has her right eye covered by her bangs is Anne, the one with the red jacket is Ben, the one with the red vest is his younger brother Tim, and the girl with the pink hair is Aelita," Lee said introducing the gang.

Katjaa smiled. "It's nice to meet you," she said.

Shawn walked over to them and said, "Well, we better get to work. We know what those things out there can do. The faster we build that fence, the better."

Duck got excited.

"I wanna build a fence!", he said. Shawn chuckled and turned to the boy. "Yeah? I need a good foreman. Tell you what. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me while I take a water break."

"On a tractor? Cool!", Duck shouted before running to the fence with Shawn. Kenny went to work on his truck and Clem sat down and talked to Katjaa.

"Hey Jeremy? Can I talk to you for a second?", asked Aelita. "Sure," the blonde said. They walked to the hay bales on the side of the barn and sat on one.

"Do you think XANA's got anything to do with this?", she asked. The blonde shrugged.

"Remember the time when XANA possessed Kiwi and whoever he bit turned into a zombie. Even Odd turned into one," she said, reminding the mini Einstein of the attack.

"You're right. He did it once, who's to say that he can do it again?", said Jeremy.

Suddenly a shrill cry of pain filled the air.

"What the?!", Aelita shouted in shock. "Come on!", she said getting up, followed by Jeremy.

They ran to the fence and were shocked by the scene in front of them. Shawn was pinned to the ground with his leg trapped under the tractor, which Duck was on. He had accidentally driven the tractor over Shawn's leg.

The rest of the residents of the farm joined them.

"I'll get my gun!", Hershel shouted running into the house. The problem got worse when a walker came from out of nowhere and grabbed Duck, nearly pulling him over the fence.

"DUCK!", shouted Kenny.

Lee quickly ran over to Duck and fought the walker while Anne and William attempted to pull Shawn out from the tractor.

Kenny ran to help Lee and managed to free Duck from the walker. Shawn, however, wasn't so lucky.

Anne and William had failed at helping Shawn. Two more walkers had came and broke through the fence. They landed on Shawn and started biting into him.

Hershel quickly ran over and shot all the walkers in the head, killing them.

He knelt down to Shawn. "Dad... I...", Shawn weakly said before going limp. Hershel checked for a pulse.

Nothing.

He closed his eyes.

"Get. Out.", he seethed. He got up and glared at them. "ALL OF YOU GET OUTTA HERE NOW!", he shouted at them.

Anne yelped at his tone and hid behind Ben and Tim.

Kenny looked down at the ground and muttered, "I'm sorry."

"SORRY?! You don't get to be sorry! You're son is alive! Mine just died!", Hershel shouted angrily at him. He glared at Lee.

"AND YOU! You didn't even TRY to help while those two did!"

"I was worried that they would get the little boy," he said.

"Well you should have tried to save BOTH of them!", Hershel shouted before turning around and stared at the ground.

"Please just go. GET OUT and never come back," he said before kneeling back down next to Shawn.

Kenny looked at Lee, Clementine, the Lyoko Warriors, and Patrick.

"You guys got that ride to Macon if you still want it," he said before walking back to Katjaa and Duck.

A few minutes later, Lee, Clem, Katjaa, Duck, and Kenny got into the front part of the truck while Patrick and the gang got in the back.

Before Aelita got in, she put a flower that she had found in the yard next to Shawn and whispered, "Thanks for the help," before rushing back to the truck. Anne took off her hat for a minute in respect before the engine started up and they left.

And as they left, Hershel stared at them as they drove out of view.


	2. Chapter 2 Macon

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Code Lyoko or The Walking Dead! Code Lyoko belongs to Moonscoop and The Walking Dead video game belongs to Telltale Games. I do, however, own my OCs Anne, Ben, and Tim.

Chapter 2

The truck drove through the ruined town. Like last time, the Lyoko Warriors rode in the back. Suddenly, the engine began to sputter. After a minute, the car stopped. Kenny sighed.

"Well, this is as far as we're goin'," he said. The gang hopped out of the vehicle. Odd stretched and looked around. "So this is Macon, huh? Not much anymore if you ask me," he said. They walked down the street.

There were a bunch of abandoned cars all over the place.

Lee stopped and looked up at a pharmacy. Yumi and Clementine noticed this and walked over to him.

"Hey Lee, is something wrong?", the Japanese girl asked. Before he could answer, Duck shouted, "Look!"

A few feet away, they saw someone behind a van.

Odd waved his arms and shouted, "Yo! You friendly? Our truck ran outta gas!"

He immediately stopped waving his arms around when he got a closer look at who it was. The person turned out to be a walker eating it's meal. It turned around and growled. More walkers appeared from behind other cars and staggered towards them.

"Oops," Odd said, realizing his mistake.

"Remind me to kill you once this is over," Ulrich muttered.

"We're trapped!", Katjaa shouted as the walkers formed a circle around them.

"WAAH!"

They turned to see Duck get pounced by a walker. "AGH! NO!", he shouted.

Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air and the walker fell down, dead. Duck quickly got up and his family wrapped their arms around each other, even though he was covered in blood. A woman with brown hair in her twenties wearing a white shirt and black skirt had been the one that shot the walker and shot more walkers in the head.

"RUN!", a man in his early 20's wearing a baseball cap and brown jacket shouted to them. The woman fired two more shots before joining the gang and ran into the pharmacy. The man quickly followed and locked the gate before the walkers could get in and ran inside.

"OK. That is it. I am not playing any video game zombie related ever again!", Odd shouted once things had calmed down.

A woman with a grouchy look on her face was shouting at the woman that saved them. "We can't keep making risks!"

"And we can't keep letting people die either!", the woman countered.

"We don't even know who these people are!", the grouchy woman yelled.

A man in his 50's walked over to them. "Or worse. They could lead them right to us!", he shouted.

"Where the h**l is your humanity?! These guys would have died out there!", the woman shouted.

"We have kids with us," said Lee. "Hmph. I only see this little girl and these teens," the old man said.

Clementine tugged on Lee's shirt. "What is it Clem?", asked Lee. "I gotta go," she said. "Then go," Lee said before returning to the argument.

The man with the cap spoke up. "They have kids, Lilly!"

"Those things outside don't care!"

"How about you go and join 'em then? I bet you got something in common with them!", Kenny shouted. "Lilly, you have to keep control of these people!", the old man shouted. "Hey, Carley and Glenn just ran outside! They wouldn't listen!", the grouchy woman shouted.

"I don't care! We are in the middle of a warzone!"

"Well, she's the leader, but she's losing control of everyone in here," Patrick said, crossing his arms.

Lilly looked at him and said, "Hey kid, if you were in my shoes, you'd have a-"

The old man cut her off and turned to Duck, who was being cleaned up by Katjaa.

"Holy sh**, one of them was bitten!"

"He wasn't bitten," Yumi said. "Yes he was, and we gotta end this now!", the old man said stubbornly before advancing towards Duck.

Kenny stepped in front of him. "Over my dead body!", he growled. "We'll dig one hole," said the old man. "No! He's not bitten! I'm cleaning him up!", Katjaa shouted.

"Don't you f**kin' people get it?! If we let a bite victim stay, we'll all end up getting bitten ourselves!"

"Shut. Up!", Kenny seethed.

"We gotta throw him out or smash his head in!"

"HEY! What part of 'he is not bitten' do you not understand?!", Odd shouted at him as he stood next to Kenny.

"Shut up, Scrawny!"

"I AM SVELTE!"

"Lee, what should we do with this guy?", asked Jeremy. "We reason with him," he replied. "With the bloody end of an axe handle maybe. Nobody threatens my boy!", Kenny shouted. "Hey, will everyone just chill out already?!", the woman who had saved them shouted.

The old man didn't listen. "If we don't do something soon, we'll be trapped in here with one of them!"

"Dude, what're ya talking about?", Tim asked. "HE'S BITTEN! That's how you turn!", he shouted before Yumi, Patrick, and Anne stepped in front of him and joined Kenny.

"You're not touching him," Yumi growled.

"Ha, like some Chinese girl, a Twilight fanboy, and an emo girl who looks like she can barely see anything past her hair could stop me from protecting us," the old man sneered.

This ticked the three of them off.

"I'M NOT CHINESE! I'M JAPANESE!"

"I'M NOT A TWILIGHT FANBOY!"

"I'M NOT EMO! Listen, you do NOT wanna mess with me! I have gone four days without a Pepsi and I am really on the edge here!"

"Sit down! Or that's it," Lee growled. The old man laughed and asked, "What're ya gonna do? Whoop me? You and what homo parade?!"

"This one," Kenny said.

The old man looked over Kenny's shoulder and shouted, "Hey little boy! Before you eat your mommy, you can watch your dad get his nose broken!"

_"He's insane!",_ Jeremy thought.

"I'm gonna kill him! You guys worry about Duck!", Kenny called over his shoulder.

"Lee!", Clementine called.

"Yeah?", he asked.

"There's someone in there," she said. Aelita looked over at her. "It's just locked, Clem. Key's probably behind the counter," she said before getting back to the fight.

"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here! I'm just tryin' to protect my daughter!"

"No, you're just a guy making an excuse to kill a kid!", Kenny countered. "The kid's covered in muck! Your wife will find the bite!"

"No, she won't."

"And if she does? The first thing the kid will do is take a bite of her face then he'll go for your girl and then us!"

"He's just a kid! We can handle that!", William shouted. "Pfft. Kid? He'll be a killing machine!", the old man shouted. "That won't happen," said Kenny.

"It is and WE'RE TOSSIN' HIM OUT NOW!", the old man hollered.

Lee couldn't take anymore of this and shouted, "NO! You don't touch him! You don't touch anyone in here! I got a girl that I'm trying to protect here too, along with these kids! You wanna fight, you senile old coot?! Well COME ON! You better have some type of plan to kill me, because it's ME before ANYONE ELSE IN HERE!"

The argument was interrupted by Clementine's scream. They all stared in horror as a walker fell out of the bathroom and crawled towards her. "SH**!", Ulrich shouted.

"CLEMENTINE!", Lee yelled before dashing towards her, only to slip and land on the hard floor. After being dazed for a few seconds, he quickly got back up and ran to Clementine, followed by Jeremy and Ben. Lee grabbed the walker and punched it.

"Stay away from her!", he shouted as the walker tried to bite him, but was held back by Jeremy and Ben, who were trying not to get bitten themselves.

Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air again and the walker fell down, dead. They looked at the woman who had saved them earlier and she had her gun in her hands, which were shaking a little bit. She lowered her gun and looked at the four of them.

"You OK?"

"Yeah. Thanks," Lee said.

The man with the baseball cap and brown jacket turned around and looked at the door. "Uh...guys?", he asked nervously.

There was a lot of banging outside. "Everybody get down and stay quiet!", Lilly ordered before everyone hid behind the counter. The old man peeked over the edge of the desk. "They're gonna get in!", he said.

"SHUT UP," Kenny said, glaring at him.

They heard rapid gunshots outside. "Is it the military?", asked Jeremy.

"No idea," answered Lilly. "Thank goodness for whoever or whatever it is," Aelita muttered. "The old man got up.

"Grr... we almost died because of this trigger happy girl! That was STUPID! That was-"

Suddenly, he clutched his chest and cried out in pain before falling to the floor.

"DAD!", Lilly cried out running to his side. "Was he the one bitten?!", Jeremy asked in alarm. "No. Don't be stupid. It's his heart," Lilly said.

"My pills..." he groaned.

"Does he mean nitroglycerian pills?", asked Aelita. Lilly nodded. "Yes. We've been trying to get into the pharmacy since we all got here. Please try to get in there. That's where the pills are," she explained.

"We'll see what we can do," Lee said.

"Thank you so much. We need nitroglycerian pills. Please get in there. I'll keep and eye on my dad."

Kenny walked over to them and said, "Everyone else in here should get comfy and try to find something useful. It looks like we'll all be here for a while."

"I don't think that this place is a good place to stay in," Patrick said. "You're right. This place ain't exactly Ft. Knox," Kenny agreed.

"We need to get a lot of gas if we wanna get everybody in here outta downtown Macon and FAST," the man with the baseball cap said.

Lee nodded. "You're right," he said.

"I'll get the gas. There's a motel not to far from here. I'll work my way through this place and get what I can get from there," the man said.

"You're a local?", asked Lee. "Born and raised," the man replied with a smile. Lee gave him a walkie talkie he had on his belt. "If you're gonna go and do that, you'll need this walkie talkie if you get in a tight spot. Clementine's got the other one. Check in with her and get back as soon as you can."

"And you. What's your name?", asked Kenny.

"Lilly. My dad's Larry," she said.

"Keep a good eye on him. These boys will get you your medicine."

He turned to a man that the gang had not noticed before when they came in.

"And you. Keep an eye on that door. You're out lookout."

"It's Doug. You got it."

The woman that had saved them walked next to Doug. "And I'm Carley," she said introducing herself.

"Carley, you'll do shifts with Doug when he needs a break. Right now, get some rest. You're a good shot and I'd like to keep it that way."

"You got it boss," she said. "Now get him those pills," Kenny told Lee.

They split up. Odd walked to a stand that had greeting cards on it.

"Huh, no "I'm sorry that your loved one was eaten by the living dead" cards," he joked.

"Shut up, Odd," the Lyoko Warriors said in unison. Odd just shrugged and looked at the shelves hoping to find something useful.

Meanwhile, Jeremy had walked over to Lilly and Larry. "How's he doin'?", he asked.

"I'm not sure I got your name," she said looking up.

"I'm Jeremy Belpois," he said. "What's wrong with your father?"

"He's got a heart condition. He takes nitroglycerin pills pretty regularly. He's had a few bad attacks and was even sent to the hospital a few times."

"Yeah... I don't think that's much of an option right now," Jeremy said as he scratched the back of his head.

"I know. I'm just trying to keep him relaxed."

"He won't be able to with that temper," the blonde said crossing his arms.

"Ah, f**k you, geek," Larry muttered. Jeremy's eye twitched at the insult.

"He doesn't mean that," she said. "It's just that these guys have kids and families that they're trying to protect here," he said adjusting his glasses.

"He and I are a family," Lilly said.

"I know. I'm just saying that some people can handle a temper like that," he said. "You know what? He kinda reminds me of Anne. She's the one with the pink hat and black flannel shirt over there."

"How does he remind you of her?"

"She goes a little nuts when she goes a couple days without a pop. Especially a Pepsi," he replied.

"How nuts?", asked Lilly.

He thought about it for a minute. "You don't wanna know," he said quickly. "You from around here?", he asked, changing the subject.

"I work at Warner Robins. It's an air force base. You?"

"Nah. My friends and I are from France. We came here to visit my cousin Patrick. He's the one with the pale skin and leather jacket."

"I'm gonna get back to him," Lilly said. "OK," he said before leaving the two.

Meanwhile, Anne, Lee, and William were chatting with Carley, who was fiddling around with something.

"You're a pretty good shot," Lee commented, referring to how she saved them earlier.

"Well, you don't f**k with a reporter, especially one that's three days out from her last cup of coffee," Carley said, making William chuckle.

"Kinda like how you don't mess with Anne here when she goes a couple days without a Pepsi," he said chuckling. Anne elbowed him in the ribs, shutting him up.

"What're you messing with there?", asked Lee.

"A radio. I can't get it to work, though," said Carley.

"Here, let me have a look," Lee said as he took the radio. He turned the volume all the way up, but nothing happened.

"Let me see that," Anne said as she took it. She pulled out the antenna, expecting a signal, but nothing happened. She pressed another button before she handed it back to Lee. Lee pressed the power button, but it didn't turn on. He then flipped it over, revealing the battery compartment. He opened it, revealing that the batteries were missing.

"There's no batteries in this thing," he said. "What now?", Carley asked.

"You DO know that there's no batteries in this?", William asked. Carley laughed nervously and said, "Yeah, of course I did. I mean, yeah... no."

Lee held back a smile and turned to Anne and William and asked, "Guys, why don't you go look for some batteries?"

"Sure," Anne replied.

"Thanks. I wouldn't really know what to look for," Carley said.

Anne and William turned around and started looking. The two teens snickered before Anne quietly said, "She didn't know it didn't have any batteries in it!"

As they searched, Lee, Doug, and Ulrich had slipped outside to see what was going on. "Yikes," Ulrich whispered. There were at least twenty walkers stumbling around in the road. They looked to the right and saw walkers devouring a survivor.

"Oh, I'm gonna puke," Ulrich said as he covered his mouth.

"They just...", Lee began to say.

"Eat," Doug finished. "That's all they seem to care about."

"And if one gets you..."

"They eat you and whatever's left comes back as one of them."

"You think the pharmacy keys are here?", asked Ulrich. "I bet that one of the employees had the keys and ran out with them, but must have gotten ambushed by those things," Doug said.

"Let's go back in," Lee said. Doug and Ulrich nodded in agreement before heading back inside. As soon as they stepped in, Clementine's walkie talkie went off.

"Hey there. This is Glenn and I'm, uh... kinda in a jam. Little girl, if you're there could you put your daddy on the phone or walkie or whatever," Glenn said from the speaker. Clem gave it to Lee.

"Lee here. What's up?", Lee asked. "I'm at the motor inn and I'm kinda stuck here," said Glenn. "What do you mean by stuck?", asked Lee.

"Well, I saw a chance to get some supplies for us but a bunch of those things came. I'm hiding right now but they're not gonna leave," Glenn replied.

"What's going on?", asked Odd. "Glenn is trapped at the motor inn up north," Lee said before clicking the button on the walkie talkie. "Glenn, you sit tight. We'll send a group to come and get ya," he said. "Whew. Awesome. I'll wait here," Glenn said before there was static.

"I don't think Doug's good around zombies and Kenny's got a family here, so I'll go there with Carley, get Glenn, and come back as fast as I can," said Lee. "Sounds good," Carley said. "Hey, what about me?", asked Odd. "Sure, you can come," Lee said. "Let's go then," said Carley as the trio headed towards the back.

When Odd stepped in, he heard a squish. He looked down and saw blood smeared on the floor.

"Eww," he muttered before following Lee and Carley out the back door and into the alley.

...

...

Lee, Odd, and Carley were walking down a street. They had reached a place called the Travelier Motel. "Is this it?", asked Odd.

"Mm-hm," Lee said nodding. Suddenly his eyes widened and he yanked both of them down.

"Shh!", he said as a walker growled and staggered away after a moment. Odd peeked out from behind the wall they were hiding behind and saw walkers all over the place.

Lee and Carley peeked out from behind the wall. They heard a squeak and saw an ice machine move a little bit.

"Hey, did you guys see that?", asked Odd. "Sure did," Lee replied.

Carley got her gun out. "Be ready to shoot," said Lee.

The ice machine door opened. Instead of a walker, Glenn came out of it. "Hey guys! I'm so glad you're here," he said as he got out and jumped over the small wall and crouched down with them. "OK. We got Glenn, now let's get outta here," Lee said.

"Wait! We can't go yet!", Glenn said. "Why not?", asked Odd. "There's a survivor up in that room," Glenn said, pointing up at a room on the second floor. "No way! We gotta get outta here now!", Carley said.

"But we can't just leave her!"

Lee sighed. "He's right," he said. "You guys are suicidal!", Carley whispered-shouted.

"I'm gonna save her with or without you," said Glenn.

"What if it was you out there?", Lee asked. Carley sighed in defeat and said, "Fine. Let's go save Glenn's damsel in distress."

As they got up, Odd smirked. "Damsel in distress, eh?", he asked as they hid behind another wall.

"Here's the plan. It's gonna be hard to get pass those things and get that girl outta that room," said Lee. "Yeah, she boarded it up after I met her," Glenn said looking up at the room. "So we're gonna have to kill every single one of them," Lee said.

"Like in Galactic Invaders?", Odd asked in an excited tone.

"Yes Odd. Just like in Galactic Invaders," Lee said with an amused smile.

Carley loaded her gun. "We'll have to do it quietly. The noise from gunshots attracts them. Now let's go," Lee said as Odd peeked over the wall. A walker was eating something. Odd quickly ducked back down. "Ugh... I just lost my appetite," he said with a groan.

Odd peeked around the corner after a few seconds and saw a pillow about two feet away from him. "Why is there a pillow right there?", the purple clad boy asked. "That's one of the supplies I was getting," Glenn said. "I might have an idea with it," Lee said.

"What? Are we gonna have a pillow fight with the walkers?", Odd joked. Lee rolled his eyes and quickly grabbed the pillow and pulled it back with them.

"Good luck smothering them to death," Carley said sarcastically. "That's not what I'm gonna do," he said before he looked to the right and saw a truck.

"This way! Quickly!", he whispered as they quickly snuck over to the truck and hid behind it. He noticed something in the drivers seat. He got up and got out the pillow.

"Uh, what're you doing?", asked Glenn.

"I don't really know. Do you have any tricks for getting into cars?"

"Well, I'm a great lock picker, but I can't really do it without a paperclip or tool and without making a lot of noise," Odd said. Lee peeked around the corner of the truck and saw a walker sitting against a car. "I bet we can do something with that car, if it weren't for that guy," he said to the other three. "Carley, get your gun ready," he ordered.

"Huh? But you said the noise-"

"Just follow my lead and stay behind me," he said as he and Carley snuck over to the walker. Lee quickly shoved the pillow in the walker's face and Carley shot it. The pillow muffled the sound.

"Whoa," was all that Odd said before he and Glenn quickly ran over to the two and hid behind the car. Lee opened the door and found something on the seat. He quickly took it.

Before he could unlock the gear shift, Odd spoke up. "Hey, can I do that?", he asked. "Be my guest," Lee said as he moved out of the way for the blonde teen. Odd pulled down the lever and unlocked the gear shift. Odd noticed the thing Lee had in his hand. "What's that?"

"A sparkplug. It should come in handy," Glenn said. Lee nodded and shoved it into his pocket.

Lee got up and grabbed the side of the car. "Help me push this," he said as Odd and Carley got up and pushed it with him. The car rolled towards a walker and smashed it into the wall.

A few walkers on the higher floor looked briefly before going back to what they were doing as the quartet quickly hid behind the truck again. Lee looked at the window and got an idea as he pulled the sparkplug out of his pocket. "Hold on. Let me see that," Glenn said stopping Lee.

"This thing has porcelain inside it and the porcelain can turn car windows like these into tissue paper," Glenn said as he smashed the sparkplug with his foot.

"Hey! You're like another Einstein!", Odd said with a goofy smile. Lee got up and grabbed a tiny piece and threw it at the window.

Like Glenn said, the glass broke easily. A few walkers looked in their direction for a moment before turning back around. Lee could hear whimpers coming from inside the room upstairs. They had to hurry. Lee quickly grabbed the item in the seat and ducked back down.

"You gonna use that to give them scrambled brains?", asked Odd. "Yep. Let's get back to that wall. It's much safer over there," Lee said as they quickly made their way back to the brick wall and hid behind it.

Lee checked to see if the coast was clear and quickly walked over to an RV, followed by Odd. Odd peeked around it and saw a walker staring up at the vehicle. Odd whistled, attracting it's attention.

"Get ready!", he whispered to Lee as the walker staggered towards them. Lee quickly stabbed it in the chest with the tool and then took out the brain.

Odd faced one that was behind them and whacked it on the head with a wooden plank. Lee finished it off and killed the zombie.

"Nice going kid," Lee said.

"Thanks!", Odd said. The man motioned Carley over as they made their way to the stairs. Lee quickly took out the walker trapped by the car. Unfortunately, he had to leave the tool.

"Hey, at least we got that," Glenn said pointing to an axe. Lee quickly took it and looked up. "Only two more left," he muttered as they crepted up the stairs. Lee took them out with ease. The other three walked over to the door with him.

Odd pressed his ear against it and heard crying. "Hello? Anyone in there? We're here to help," the spiked haired boy said as he knocked lightly.

"Please just go away!" a girl's voice came from behind the door.

"Come on. If you open up, we can take you somewhere safer in town," said Lee. "No!", she shouted. "We got no choice then. Miss, we're coming in!", Lee said as he chopped the board off with the axe. He kicked the door a couple times before the girl spoke up.

"Stop! Just stop! I'm coming out...", the girl said as she stepped out. She looked about 18 and was very pale, like Patrick. She was clutching her side and her shirt was soaked with blood. "Oh no...", said Carley, realizing what happened.

"Please just stay away!", the girl said. "But we need to get you help!", said Glenn. "It's too late for that," she said sadly.

"Guys, she's been bitten," said Carley. "Say what?!", Odd shouted in shock.

"I told you to stay away from me. I'm bit, but you wouldn't go away."

"Hey, calm down. You could be fine," Lee said to the girl. "I won't be fine! My boyfriend was bitten and if you get bit, you get sick, and when you get sick, you die and come back as one of them!", she said fearfully.

After a few seconds, Glenn asked, "You have a boyfriend?"

"GLENN!", Carley hissed.

"I don't want that to happen to me! Please leave me. Please go."

Odd thought about it for a few seconds before speaking up. "Come with us and we'll find you some help," the purple clad boy said.

The girl's eyes drifted over to Carley's gun. "You have a gun," she said. "Um... yeah," Carley replied, confused.

"Can I borrow it?"

"What do you mean by borrow?", the brown haired woman asked.

"Give it to me. I can just end this and then the problem will be gone," the girl said.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!", Lee said.

"PLEASE! I don't want to be one of those things out there!", said the girl. "Give it to me PLEASE!", she pleaded.

"Hey chill out! We can find you a cure!", Odd said. The girl didn't listen. Instead, she ran over and tried to take it from Carley. "WHOA!", Odd shouted as he and Glenn rushed over to try and stop her. Unfortunately, the extra weight caused the balcony to collapse and they all landed on the ground.

The quartet got up and looked around for Carley's weapon and saw that the girl had it.

"Whoa, easy there. We just want to help," Lee said slowly stepping towards her.

"You can't...", she said before pulling the trigger and falling to the ground, dead. Their eyes widened at the sight. "Holy sh**," Odd whispered. "Let's get outta here," Glenn somehow managed to say after what had just happened. They nodded before hearing the familiar groaning of walkers.

"Run for it!", Odd shouted as the four ran away from the walkers and got into Glenn's car.

"Go go go go go!", Odd shouted as Glenn stepped on the accelerator as hard as he could and they sped away from the herd.

...

...

"You guys alright?", Kenny asked as soon as they stepped in. "We had a couple of close call back there but we managed to save Glenn," Lee replied.

"Yeah and there was- MMPH!" Carley covered Odd's mouth with her hand before he could finish his sentence.

"I have a few cans of gas for your pickup in my car," Glenn said after a moment.

"Good to hear it," said Kenny. "How are things here?", asked Carley. "Pretty quiet. Our "friend" over there won't survive anymore stress if we don't get him those pills," Jeremy said. "Then we gotta get those pills," said Lee. "Doug, Ulrich, come with me," he said as they followed him out the front door. Once again, they crouched back down.

"What now?", Ulrich asked. "We distract them," Lee said.

"There's one trapped under that telephone pole," he said.

Sure enough, a walker in a doctor's outfit was trapped under a telephone phone.

Lee looked sad for a second but quickly snapped out of it.

"We need to draw their attention to something," he said.

"How?", asked Doug. Ulrich looked at a bunch of TVs across the street. "Hold on," the brunette said before going back inside. A few minutes later, he came back out with a remote in his hand. "You got a couple batteries on ya?", Ulrich asked Lee.

Lee nodded and gave him two batteries. Ulrich placed them into the remote and aimed it at the TVs. He clicked the power button. Nothing came on. "Let me see that," Doug said as Ulrich handed him the remote. "This is a universal remote, so if I just do this...", Doug muttered as he messed around with it a little bit. "There! Now try it," Doug said as he handed it back to Ulrich.

Ulrich aimed it at the TVs again and clicked the power button. This time, they turned on. The walkers looked at it for a moment before going back to staggering.

"Oh come on!", the brunette shouted in irritation. Lee noticed a brick in front of the gate that was out of his reach. He looked up at the lock and got an idea. He chopped it off with the axe he found back at the motel.

"That was awesome!", Ulrich said. Now that the gate was open, Lee grabbed the brick and threw it at the glass. The glass broke and a bunch of static came from the TVs, which drew the walkers' attention. While they were distracted, Lee quickly ran over to the walker trapped under the telephone pole.

Doug and Ulrich watched from inside the gate. "What's he doing? Is he TALKING to that thing?", asked Ulrich. "Hard to say," Doug replied. A few minutes later, Lee waved the keys up high and they smiled. "Alright!", Ulrich said before he noticed the walkers turning to them. "OH SH**! RUN!", he shouted as Lee dashed across the street and dashed inside. Ulrich quickly closed the gate before running back in.

"I got the keys!", Lee said as they entered.

"Great! Now let's get those pills," Jeremy said as he, Lilly, and Lee ran to the pharmacy. Lee unlocked it and they stepped in. As soon as they did, an alarm went off.

"Not good!", Jeremy shouted.

"We gotta hurry!", Lilly said as they ran to find the pills. Outside, the walkers heard the alarm and headed towards the pharmacy. "They're coming!", Anne shouted. "I'll go pull the truck around back!", Kenny shouted as he ran to the back.

"Get it done fast!", Lilly said as she helped Larry up. "I don't plan on dilly-dallying!", he yelled. "Glenn! When you hear me honking in the alley, start getting people outta here!"

"Got it!"

"Doug, Carley, Lee, Jeremy, and William, you make sure our defenses stay up til then! And Lee, I better take that axe just in case I run into any of them on the way to my truck!"

"Here ya go!", Lee said as he tossed it over to Kenny. There was a lot of banging outside. "Guys! The doors won't last much longer!", Doug shouted.

"You guys get right on it! I'll get back as fast as I can!", Kenny shouted as he dashed out the back door. The five quickly dashed to the door and tried to keep the door shut.

"Hey, Lee. If we don't make it through this, you should know... that I think you're a great guy," said Doug.

"We WILL make it through this!", Lee shouted as they struggled with the door.

"Doug, if we don't make it outta this, you should know-", Carley began to say but was cut off when the walkers banged on the door.

"What?", asked Doug.

"Huh?", Carley asked.

"You just said that I should know-", Doug said, only to be cut off when the walkers banged on the door again.

Suddenly, some walkers crashed through a window that was barricaded with a shelf. Carley shot a couple while trying not to get the other four.

"Clem! Can you find something to stick between the handle bars?", Lee asked the girl.

"Yeah! Find something real strong OK?", William shouted, struggling with the door.

"OK!", Clementine said as she quickly looked for something while they tried to keep the door shut. "Oh no! The window!", Doug shouted as walkers clawed at it.

"Go!", Lee shouted as Doug ran to block it. There was a crash.

"Carley!", shouted Lee. "Got it!", she said running to take care of a walker. "I found something!", Clem said as she gave Lee a cane. He shoved it between the handles. "AGH! Get them off!", Doug shouted as a couple arms grabbed him from outside the window.

"SH**! I'm outta bullets!", Carley shouted. "LEE! There's ammo in my purse!" Lee looked at Carley, then Doug, then Carley, then Doug, and then Carley.

He decided to help Carley and grabbed the ammo and tossed it over to her. She quickly reloaded her gun and shot the walkers that were cornering her.

Jeremy and Wiliam ran to try and help Doug, but it was too late. Doug was pulled through the window and was pounced on by walkers. Everyone stared in shock. Kenny ran back in.

"LET'S GO!", he shouted.

"They got Doug...", Carley muttered as she ran into the door. Suddenly, a walker grabbed Aelita by the ankle, causing her to trip.

"AHH! Get it off!", she cried as she kicked it in the face. Jeremy quickly ran over and stomped hard on it three times, forcing the walker to let go. The mini-Einstein quickly helped Aelita up.

"COME ON!", Jeremy shouted as the rest of the gang quickly ran through the door but Lee was stopped by Larry. "You're NOT coming with us!", he shouted as he punched Lee, knocking him to the ground.

"NO!", Clem shouted. Kenny quickly ran over and chopped a walker that was about to get Lee. "No way I'm letting someone else get eaten today!", he said as he helped Lee up.

"Especially a good friend," he said as he shut the door and they ran to the truck in the alley.

"HURRY!", Odd shouted as he helped everyone into the back of Kenny's truck. "Drive, drive, drive, drive!", Anne shouted as they sped out of Macon.

...

...

They made it to the motel, where there were no walkers except for the ones Lee had killed earlier. They stacked them in a pile. Glenn, for some reason, had left. The Lyoko Warriors had spilt up and chatted with the people they escaped with.

Jeremy and Lee walked over to Carley, who was rummaging through a box.

"Hey," Jeremy greeted as the two walked over to her.

"Hi," said Carley.

"How're you doing?", asked Lee.

"OK, but you know, after what happened at the drugstore, I can't stop thinking about Doug. We couldn't have saved him, could we?"

"I don't really think so. It happened pretty fast," said Lee.

"I just wish that William and I had gotten there sooner," Jeremy said as he looked down.

"I know it's stupid... we just met... and he was such a nice guy. I think I kinda liked him," said Carley.

"I'm sure he liked you too," Lee said. Carley nodded and went back to looking through the box.

Meanwhile, Ulrich, Anne, and Aelita walked over to Duck, who was chatting up a storm while Clementine sat next to him.

"Hey Duck, you wanna cool it for a minute?", asked Ulrich.

"OK, sorry," the younger boy said. Aelita knelt down to face Clementine.

"How're you doing, Clementine?", she asked. "OK, I guess," the girl said. "It's just that, when I fell down at the store. I landed on my walkie talkie and it broke. Glenn has the other one."

"Aww, I'm sorry," said Aelita. "Hey, at the store, when you got grabbed, I noticed that Jeremy ran back and saved you," said Clem.

"What about it?", asked the rosette.

"I saw the looks you've been giving each other. Do you like him?"

Aelita blushed while Ulrich and Anne snickered.

"Uh, it's not what you think! We're just friends!", she said nervously while blushing. "Um, I'm gonna go see if Kenny needs help," Aelita said as she quickly left the three while Anne and Ulrich kept snickering.

As she walked over to Kenny, they heard a lot of gunshots coming from a few miles away.

"I hope that's the sound of us winning," Ben said.

"Yeah, me too," said Lilly. Kenny walked over to them. "This place seems pretty sturdy. We block the entrance off with some cars and with someone on watch, we can stay here until the military rolls through," he said.

They walked to the entrance. "You know, I actually agree with that," said Lilly.

"Me too," said Lee.

"So do we," said Jeremy as he and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors stood next to them.

"We got beds, water, and most importantly, electricity," Kenny said before all the lights on the street and motel blinked out. Anne crossed her arms and looked at Kenny.

"You were saying?"


	3. Chapter 3 Three months later

Three months later...

In a forest, a walker was eating something. Suddenly an axe came out from a bush and hit it in the head. The axe belonged to Lee, who now wore a brown leather jacket over a red shirt and dark jeans. Ulrich, William, and a man with glasses and a rifle walked over to him.

"What'd they get this time?," William, who now wore a black jacket instead of his brown one over a dark blue T-shirt and dark blue jeans, asked putting away a switchblade he found.

"Looks like a rabbit," said Lee. "Another meal gone," the man with glasses muttered.

"Eh, wouldn't be that filling anyway," Ulrich, who now wore a dark blue jacket over a gray T-shirt and brown pants, said with a shrug.

"I can't believe we went through all that food in just three months," the man with glasses said.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have opened the door," said Lee. "Yeah, except I'd be food by now," the man said.

"A rabbits not that much of a meal, Mark, but I'm sure Odd would take it. We're all starved here," said William.

"No kidding," Mark said. "When I accidentally grabbed Carley and Odd's rations, I thought they were gonna take my hand off!"

"They're all on the edge. Just cut those two some slack," said Lee.

Mark sighed. "You're right. I just wish I knew how much food we have left," said Mark. "You're gonna have to ask Lilly. She's the one in charge of everything," said Ulrich.

"You guys think that Kenny and Yumi are having better luck than us?", asked Mark.

"I hope so," said Ulrich.

"Between our lack of food and Kenny and Lilly fighting all the time, things back at the motel are getting pretty tense," said Mark. "Kenny said he's been thinking about leaveving once he gets the RV running."

"No way Kenny would abandon us. He's a good guy," said William.

"Can't blame him. Did you guys hear Larry going off on him last night?", asked Mark. "What's his deal? Seems like he's got a problem with you in particular Lee."

"He's just looking out for his daughter," said Lee.

"Well if you ask me he's just some racist a**hole," said William. Ulrich snickered at this. "Good one," he said.

A bird flew into a tree. Mark hid behind a rock and aimed his rifle at it. "Don't. The sound will attract walkers. One bird's not worth it anyway," said Ulrich.

After he said that, there was a scream. "Oh crap! Was that Kenny and Yumi?", asked Mark.

"I don't know! Come on!", Lee shouted as they ran towards the direction of the scream. The person screamed again. "To the left!", Ulrich shouted.

They ran left and found two boys about 16-17 in blue high school jackets trying to help a man with light brown hair out of a bear trap. When they saw them, they panicked.

"Oh sh**! Please don't kill us! We just wanna help our teacher!", the shorter one with black hair said.

Suddenly, Kenny, who now wore a green T-shirt over a white long sleeved shirt, and Yumi, who now wore a black jacket along with a black shirt ran over to them. "You guys alright?", asked Yumi.

"Get it off! Please get it off me!", the man shouted. "Travis, maybe these guys can help!", the boy with brown hair said.

"These guys might be with the same guys that raided our camp!", Travis said.

"What guys? Who would set up a bear trap out here?", asked Kenny.

"What the h**l happened here anyway?!", asked Ulrich. "Mr. Parker told us to stay off the streets, so we came out here and-"

The boy with brown hair was cut off by his teacher moaning. "Please help us!", he said.

"Shut up Ben! My dad was in the Special Forces! I know what I'm doing, OK?!", Travis snapped.

"We gotta get this guy outta there!", Lee said. Mark and William got down to examine the trap. "The trap's altered. There's no release switch!", Mark said.

They heard some growling. They turned and saw walkers coming out from behind trees.

"CRAP! Hurry up! You two stay back!", Kenny ordered as he and Mark began shooting at the walkers. Ulrich and Yumi tried prying the trap open, but it didn't work and made the man scream some more.

"Yumi, Ulrich, get back," Lee said as he walked over to Mr. Parker. The man realized what he was going to do and shouted, "No! Don't!"

"I'm sorry but it's the only way to get you out!", Lee said as he raised the axe high.

"Oh sh**," Yumi whispered before she quickly looked the other way as Lee chopped the leg four times and Mr. Parker passed out. Ulrich tried not to puke at the sight but Travis did.

"Quick! Grab him and let's go!", Kenny shouted. Mark quickly picked up the teacher and slung him over his shoulders. William turned to Travis and gasped. "BEHIND YOU!", he yelled.

"TRAVIS!", Ben shouted as he tried to run to his friend but was stopped by Lee. "We gotta move!", he said as Travis was tackled by walkers.

"AHH! Arrrrrrrrrgggggk!", he shouted as the walkers tackled him.

"MOVE IT GUYS!", Ulrich shouted as he and the rest of the group ran away while Travis was devoured by the walkers.

Meanwhile...

At the motor inn, things were pretty quiet.

Larry, who now wore a green shirt with brown pants, was working on the fence.

Clementine was kicking a soccer ball at barrels.

Duck was doodling on a piece of wood with chalk while Katjaa, who now wore a light brown jacket and blue jeans watched him.

Anne, who now wore an unbuttoned denim shirt over a baggy dark blue T-shirt with blue jeans and her signature pink hat, was sitting down in a chair under the roof of the RV and had her nose buried in the 60th volume of Naruto that Jeremy had found in the town and given to her. Also, most of her hair was tied into a low rise ponytail while her bangs still covered her right eye.

Carley, who now wore a purple vest over her white shirt along with blue jeans, was sleeping on a couch under the RV roof.

Ben (the one with black hair), Tim, and Patrick were sitting next to the RV playing Go Fish.

Aelita, who was now wearing a denim jacket, a pink t-shirt, and blue jeans, was chilling out on the balcony with Jeremy, who now wore a red flannel shirt with his brown pants. Also, the blonde's hair was more scruffy looking.

Odd, who now sported a purple jacket over a black T-shirt that said 'Keep calm and RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!' on it with blue jeans, was relaxing in one of the chairs in the lot.

Lilly, who was now wearing a dark green jacket over a white T-shirt and dark brown pants, was sitting on top of the RV with a rifle next to her.

She watched the others then looked at Larry and smiled at him.

Suddenly, there was some rustling coming from the forest. She got her rifle and whistled to the others. They immediately crouched down while Carley woke up and got out her trusty Glock 17. Lilly looked back at the forest and saw Lee, Ulrich, Yumi, William, Kenny, Mark, a teen in a highschool jacket, and a man missing a leg slung over Mark's shoulders running out of it.

"Hurry up and open the gates! We've got wounded!", Yumi shouted.

"Wounded?!", Aelita shouted as she and Jeremy dashed down the stairs. Lilly climbed off the RV while the others ran to the gates. Lee quickly pushed the dumpsters out of the way and got in while some of the group started yelling.

"What the?!"

"What's going on?"

"Who the h**l are they?!"

"Are you guys OK?"

"What happened to him?!"

"No time for explanations," said Lee as he set the man down in the back of the truck. "Kat, can you fix him up?", asked Kenny. "I'll see what I can do," she said.

"What the h**l you guys?! You can't just keep bringing new people here! What were you all thinking?!", Lilly shouted.

"Calm down!", Kenny shouted at her.

"No, I won't calm down! What I want is to know why you guys brought more mouths to feed!", Lilly shouted.

"This guy would have died if we left him back there Lilly!", Ulrich said.

"So what?", Larry asked, receiving glares from the Lyoko Warriors.

"We are not responsible for every single person injured! We need to focus on OUR group and only our group right here, right now!", Lilly said.

"Hold up, Lilly! We didn't even talk to these guys yet! Maybe they CAN be helpful around here," said Carley.

"Yeah. These people are just like us trying to survive this!", said Mark.

Lilly turned to him and said, "The only reason you're here is that you had food. Enough food for all of us and now that food's almost gone and we got about a week's worth left."

She turned to the Ben with brown hair. "And I don't suppose you guys are carrying anything on you," she said.

"Um, no," the teen said as he looked at the ground. Mark then sighed. "You guys can fight it out. Welcome to the family, kid," Mark said leaving the group to work on the fence.

Clementine walked over to the Ben with brown hair and tugged on his sleeve. "Come over here and see what I drew," she said.

"Huh? What? Oh, OK," he said following her.

"You know, you think you're the leader of this group but we can make our own decisions here ya know! This isn't your own personal dictator ship, Lilly!", Kenny shouted.

"Oh come on you guys! You're being so dramatic! Everything always turns into some type of struggle for control between you two and I'm not gonna be a part of that!", Carley said walking away.

"Hey I didn't ask to be the leader of this group! Everyone was happy that I was distributing the food when we had enough but now it's running out!", Lilly shot back.

Jeremy sighed and said, "Hey, it doesn't matter who's in charge here! Those people are here with us now. I guess we'll have to decide what happens next."

"No, Jeremy. It does matter. One person can't be in charge of everything!", said Kenny.

Jeremy sighed at this. Oh how wrong Kenny was about that.

"Well I don't see any of you stepping up to make the decisions here! My girl's got more guts than any of you!", Larry said.

"And what about you? Why don't you step up?", Anne shot back.

Larry glared at the girl and said, "You watch your mouth, you little b**ch!"

Anne gasped at the insult and shouted, "Why I oughta-!"

Carley got up from her seat and quickly walked over to Anne. She grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged the girl away from the group before the situation got out of hand.

Lilly sighed and said, "Dad, please. Could you go and help Mark set the fence up again?"

He glared at Lee for a second before leaving to help Mark. Lilly then turned to Lee and Jeremy. "Do you guys think this is easy for me? Everyone's starting to hate me because I'm the one that gives out the rations. But nobody else wants to!" She picked up some food out of a bag.

"Ya know what? I'm not gonna do it tonight. You two can do it. These are today's rations but there's not enough for everybody here. Good luck," she said before leaving.

"Well, she's cranky," Jeremy said after a few seconds.

They looked down at the food. Lee had an apple half, two packs of crackers and cheese, and a slice of beef jerky. Jeremy had a banana, two packs of four small cookies, and an apple half. Also, Lilly had given him a can of Pepsi. "You better give that one to Anne," said Lee. Jeremy nodded and they split up.

Jeremy walked over to Anne first. "Hey, Anne," he said. She looked up from her Naruto book. "Oh hey, Jer. What's up?", she asked. "How are you holding up?", asked Jeremy. "OK, I guess," she answered.

"What do you think about this place?"

"As long as no walkers get in, I'm OK with it," Anne said as she leaned back in her chair.

"About Larry...", Jeremy began.

"Ugh, don't get me started! He's such a jerk! Did you hear what he called me earlier?", Anne asked. Jeremy nodded.

"All he does is yell at us saying that we're not doing any work when he's not doing any himself! I sometimes wanna kick him in the nuts," she said. Jeremy looked at Larry, who was yelling at Mark.

"You know, I kinda agree with you," he said. Jeremy then handed her the can of Pepsi. "Here, Lee told me to give this to you. We all know how you can get when you go without a pop for a while," he said. "Thanks Jeremy," Anne said as she took the can. He looked down at his food before he walked over to the Ben with brown hair.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey," Ben said.

"So your name's Ben?", he asked.

"Yeah. Why?", he asked.

"Well, there's another guy here named Ben. Hey Ben!", the blonde haired boy yelled to the black haired Ben. He looked up from his cards. "What?", he shouted back.

"Could ya come over here for a sec?", asked Jeremy. "Sure," Ben replied as he set down his cards, got up, and walked over to them.

"Ben, meet Ben," Jeremy said with a smirk on his face.

"Well this is gonna be confusing," Ben #1 said.

"We're gonna have to call you something other than Ben #1," Jeremy said.

"How about Benny?", Odd hollered to them, grinning when he saw the annoyed look on Ben #1's face.

"NO! I hate that nickname," Ben #1 muttered.

"How about Red?", asked Ben #2. The other Ben looked down at his red jacket and said, "Nah, too obvious."

"How about Rugby?", Tim hollered.

"Our last name? Hmm... Sounds good enough," Rugby said (that's what we'll be calling him from now on) as he walked back to his spot and picked his cards back up.

The blonde then walked over to Carley, who was watching Duck, Clementine, and Ben drawing.

"Guess what it is!", Clementine said as she held up a drawing.

Ben looked at it and said, "I dunno. A dog?"

"Oh, I know! It's a goat, right?", Duck guessed.

"No!", said Clementine.

Jeremy and Carley snickered at this.

"Hey Carley, want some food?", the mini-Einstein asked.

"Sure," the former reporter said as he handed her a pack of cookies.

"Thanks," Carley said with a smile.

Jeremy nodded and looked down at the food in his hands and back at the others. He noticed Katjaa at the truck and walked over to her. "Hi," he greeted. "You hungry?", the mini Einstein asked. "A little," Kat replied. "Here. You'll need this," he said as he gave her the apple half. "Thank you," she said with a smile. Jeremy smiled and nodded.

He noticed his cousin over with Ben and Tim and walked over to them. "Hey Patrick," he said. "Hey, cuz. What's up?", Patrick asked with a small smile. "Are you hungry?", asked Jeremy.

"Little bit," the pale boy replied. Jeremy handed him the other pack of cookies. "Thanks," Patrick said taking the cookies.

Jeremy looked down at the last piece of food he had, which was the banana.

He climbed up the stairs that led to the balcony and walked over to Aelita. "Hi, Aelita," he greeted. She smiled and said, "Hi."

"Do you think that guy's gonna make it?", he asked as he gestured to Mr. Parker.

Aelita shrugged. "Katjaa is working on him, so he should be fine," she said.

"We'll probably have to get him some crutches," said Jeremy.

"I don't know, maybe a wheel chair would be better," she said. "He can get away from the walkers faster like that."

"But what if he gets to a set of stairs?", asked Jeremy. Aelita sighed. "Alright, you got me on that one," she muttered, making him smile a little bit.

"You hungry?", he asked. "Nah, I'm good," she said. "You sure?", asked Jeremy.

"Yeah. You should give that to someone else, like the kids," the pink haired girl said. He nodded and walked back down to the lot and walked over to Duck.

"Hey Duck. You hungry?", he asked as Duck eagerly nodded. He smiled and gave him the banana.

"Thanks!", Duck said.

Jeremy and Lee walked back to Lilly.

"That's all we have for today," Jeremy said to her.

"Not easy is it?", she asked.

"Nope. I'm gonna go see how Kat's doing with that guy," Jeremy said as he walked over to the truck.

"How's he doing?", asked the blonde. Kat sadly shook her head and said, "He lost too much blood."

"He didn't make it?", asked Jeremy. "I tried, but there was nothing else I could do," said Kat.

Suddenly, something grabbed her from behind. It was Mr. Parker but he was extremely pale and his eyes were white.

"SH**! KAT!", Jeremy cried as he tried to pry the zombie off of her. After a few seconds, he managed to pry the walker away from her.

"The axe! Hurry!", he shouted before being grabbed by Mr. Parker.

"AGH!", he cried as he struggled with him and smashed the walker's head on both sides of the pickup hard.

"MOVE!", Rugby yelled as he grabbed the axe and swung at the the walker, only for it to get caught in the window.

"It's stuck!", the boy shouted as he tried to pull out the axe. While he was doing that, Jeremy was kicking the walker away. Anne grabbed a piece of wood and whacked it on the head hard, sending it back towards the window. Jeremy backed away from the walker until he fell out of the truck. The walker landed on top of him but Jeremy somehow managed to keep it away from his face as he struggled with it. Carley quickly walked over to them and took the axe, whiich Rugby finally managed to get out, and got ready to attack it.

'Watch your fingers, Jeremy!", she said before chopping the walker in the head, killing it.

Jeremy hauled the corpse off of him and was helped up by Carley.

"You OK?", she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks," Jeremy said adjusting his glasses.

Larry glared at Lee and shouted, "You idiot! Why'd you bring him here in the first place! You're gonna get all of us killed!"

Anne stepped in between the two and said, "For once, will you stop blaming everything on him?!"

"Why didn't you tell us he was bitten?!", Kenny demanded walking over to Ben.

"I swear he wasn't bitten!", the brunet said.

"Well your "not bitten" friend right there nearly got Jer and Kat killed!", shouted Kenny.

"Hey, give him a break! He might've not known about the bite!", William said.

"Wait. Y'all don't know?", asked Ben.

"Know about what?", Odd asked as everyone turned their attention to Ben.

"It's not the bite that does it," he said.

"Whaddya mean, "not the bite"? You get bit and you're dead!", Anne said.

"You come back no matter how you die. If you don't destroy the brain, that's what happens," Ben explained.

Everyone's eyes widened at this revelation.

"So... we're all infected?", asked Lee.

"Yeah, I guess so," Ben muttered. "When I first saw it happen, we were all hiding in a gym. We thought we were safe, but a cheerleader named Jenny Pitcher couldn't take it and took a lot of pills and when someone went into the girls room next morning..."

They all stared at Ben until they heard Carley shout, "BACK OFF!"

They turned to see Carley holding her gun up at two men standing outside the homemade gates.

"Whoa there, lady! Relax! Me and my brother are just lookin' for help!", one of the men said in a southern accent.

"You armed?", asked Patrick.

"Yeah... for protection. Dead could be anywhere right now, ya know," the second man said.

"Then why do you need gas?", Aelita asked.

"Our place is protected by an electric fence that runs on a generator. The generator runs on gas. Look, my family owns a dairy a few miles away from here. If ya'lll be willing enough to lower your guns, we can talk about some kind of trade," said the first man.

"How ya'll doin' on food? We got plenty of it back at the dairy," said the second man.

They thought about it for a moment.

"Lee, how about you, Mark, and Odd check the place out and see if it's legit?", Lilly asked.

"Alright," said Lee.

"I'm coming with you. You'll need someone with good observation skills," said Jeremy.

"Me too. I got your back if anything seems fishy," said Carley.

"Count me in," Anne said.

"I guess I'll come," muttered Ben.

"So what're ya'll thinking?", asked the second man.

"OK, we'll go to the dairy," said Lee. "We'll bring some gas to your dairy and in exchange, you give us some food to bring back here."

"Deal. By the way, I'm Andy and this is my brother Danny," said the first man.

Later...

They walked through the forest.

"So you guys really have food?", asked Anne.

"Sure do. We lost most of the cattle, but we managed to stock up on milk, butter, and cheese," said Andy

Anne glanced back and noticed Lee and Carley talking. She smirked and nudged Odd a little bit.

"What?", the boy asked as Anne pointed back at Lee and Carley.

"Oh," he said once he realized what was going on and started snickering.

"So, Lee, where you from?", asked Andy.

"Well, you could say the motor inn is my home now," said Lee.

Andy nodded and said, "Ya'll seem pretty comfortable back at the motor inn. Who's running things there?"

"We work as a group and look out for each other," said Jeremy.

"I hear that," Andy said.

They kept chatting about the motor inn until they heard a voice shout, "You think they're gonna cut me outta this?!"

"Get down!", Odd whispered as they all ducked down. They looked in the direction of where the voice came from and saw two men in ski masks argueing.

"Great. Bandits," Andy muttered.

"No one's trying to cut you outta anything!", one of them said.

"Who are they?", asked Anne.

"A**holes, that's who they are," said Danny.

"...and ya know what? We ate it all! What're you gonna do about it?!", one of the bandits shouted.

"Don't worry. Danny and I got ya covered if something happens, but let's just wait and see what happens and hope they leave," said Andy.

Suddenly one of them kicked the other one down and shot him in the head, shocking the group.

"Holy sh**!", Carley whispered.

He shot the already dead bandit in the head three more times before leaving.

"OK, I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks now that I've seen that," Jeremy said.

"Come on, let's get to the dairy where it's safe," Andy said as they got up and left.

Later...

They finally made it to the dairy.

"Welcome to the St. John's family dairy," said Andy. "This is how we kept our place safe," he said gesturing to an electric fence.

"So this fence keeps 'em out?", asked Mark.

"You betcha. If a walker touches it, they get fried like bugs in a zapper. We're pushing 4000 volts through that thing with generators and amps."

Carley whistled. "I bet that's a lot," she said as a woman with red hair wearing a pink flannel shirt and jeans came out of the house.

"Why hello there!", she said in a cheerful tone.

"Everyone, this is our mama," said Andy.

"I'm Brenda St. John and welcome to the St. John dairy!", she said as everyone nodded.

"This here is Lee. He's been living at that old motel," said Andy.

"They've got a few more friends staying there," said Danny.

"That place is pretty vunerable. Do you have anyone with survival experience to lead your group?"

"We work together. We've also got people with fighting and military experience," said Lee.

"That's good, because that motel ain't the safest place but now that y'all are here, we'll make sure you and those kids are safe," said Brenda.

"Does that apply to the rest of us?", asked Lee.

"We're awful hungry," said Carley.

"Don't worry. I baked you these fresh this morning," Brenda said as she held out a basket full of biscuits.

"Amazing!", Carley said.

Odd tried to grab a few, but Anne grabbed him by the hood and pulled him back.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Save some for everyone else!", she said.

Danny smirked. "Can't get stuff like that anymore, not without a cow for milk and butter, that's for sure."

"That's right. Hopefully our cow Maybelle will make it through this with whatever she's got left and be with us for a good long while," said Brenda.

"Your cow's sick? What-", Lee began to say but was cut off by Mark, who said, "We have a vet back at the inn! We could bring her here and see what's wrong with your cow!"

"A vet? Oh my! Our prayers have been answered!", Brenda said happily.

"Maybe our whole group could come for the day," said Mark.

"Well how about this, ya'll go get your friends and I'll prepare some dinner. A nice big feast for all of your growling stomachs. It'll be nice to have someone to help out here again. Danny, why don't you come help me out in the kitchen?", asked Brenda.

"Sure thing mama," Danny said as the two walked into the house.

"Why don't I go back to the inn with the food and round up everyone for the trip back here?", asked Carley.

"You might wanna take someone with you. Remember, the roads can be very dangerous these days," said Andy.

"Don't worry, I can take care of myself," said Carley.

"Here, take this," Mark said as he handed her his rifle. "And why don't you take Ben, Jeremy, Anne, and Odd with you?"

"OK," she said as she turned to Lee.

"Take care of yourself, Lee," she said. She turned around to find Anne and Odd smirking at her.

"What are you two smiling at?", she asked.

"Nothing," Odd said as they left the dairy.

A few minutes later...

They were once again walking in the forest.

"So uh... where are you and your friends from, Jeremy?", Ben asked after a few minutes.

"We're from France but my cousin Patrick's from Atlanta," said the blonde genius.

"Then why are you here?", asked Ben.

"We came here to visit my cousin, aunt, and uncle. Three months ago, the gang and I were just hanging out until they playfully stole my glasses. I managed to get them back but then we noticed something in the woods so we checked it out and found out it was a walker and we ended up getting chased by more of them so we jumped over a fence and met Lee and Clementine."

"Wow," Ben said.

"So what about you? Where are you from?", asked Anne.

"Me? I'm from Stone Mountain," Ben said. "I was traveling with the band on the way to the football playoffs when the plague hit."

Soon they made it back to the motor inn and told them about everything back at the dairy.

"No way! Seriously?!", asked Kenny. "Then let's go!"

"Whoa whoa, wait! We need someone to keep an eye on the inn!", said Yumi.

"Good idea. Carley, you and Ben stay here and hold down the fort," said Lilly.

"I'll stay here too," said William.

"OK then let's go," said Kenny as everyone, except for Ben, Carley, and William, left.

Later...

They made it back to the dairy.

"Wow, they weren't kidding about the electric fence," said Ulrich once he saw the fence.

Andy and Brenda walked over to them.

"I see ya'll decided to come," he said.

"Hey, where's Lee and Mark?", asked Patrick.

"They went to check on the fence and- Oh! Here they come now!", Brenda said as they saw Lee and Mark rushing over to the gates. Andy started to walk over to them but began to run once he saw Mark limping. They others noticed this and followed him.

"Lee, what happened?!", Aelita asked as soon as they made it over to them. She gasped when she saw the arrow in Mark's shoulder.

"Bandits ambushed us and shot Mark," Lee said.

"I-I'm OK...", Mark said with a groan.

"Brenda's got you, sweetheart. C'mon inside and we'll get this sorted out," Brenda said as she led him to the house.

"Whoa, hold on a minute! Did you say bandits attacked this place?", asked Larry.

"Yeah, we ran into a couple on the way here but they didn't notice us. They gave us some trouble a while back and killed our farmhands but we managed to keep them off our backs by making a deal," said Andy.

"You KNEW about these people?!", Kenny asked.

"Food for protection. We didn't have much of a choice anyway," said Danny.

"GRR! Carley said that this place was safe!", Larry shouted.

Anne rolled her eyes. "There he goes again," she muttered.

"Maybe it isn't as safe here as we thought," said Lee.

"We're sorry we didn't tell you," Andy said. "Listen, we may have had an agreement with these people, but we will NOT take this sh**!"

"You know where those jerks are?!", asked Yumi.

"They're hard to locate but I think I know where at least ONE of their camps are. When you're ready to come scope it out, let me know," Danny said as the St. Johns brothers walked up to the house.

"Alright! I can't wait to-", Odd began but was cut off by Lee.

"No, Odd. You and the others are staying here," he said. "These bandits are dangerous."

"DANG IT!", the boy yelled.

"I say that this place is safer than that inn! We could even take over this place," said Kenny.

"Take over? These people are nice enough to help us out and you wanna take over their farm?", Rugby asked.

"The kid's got a point. These are nice people. Let's not do anything to get us thrown out before we eat," said Larry.

"I'm gonna go and help Danny find out where those bandits are hiding. You guys should try to make friends with Andy and Brenda," said Lee.

"That's easy. I got charm coming right outta my-"

"Yeah... we get the point," Yumi said cutting Larry off.

"Wait a minute. Where's Carley, Ben, and William?", asked Lee. "They decided to stay and keep an eye on the inn," Tim explained.

Andy walked over to them and said, "Hey, I remember seeing kids in your group, so I fixed up the swing over there for them. Hope you kids like swings!"

Duck and Clementine got excited. "A swing! I love swings! Just like the one back at my treehouse! Come on, Duck!", an excited Clem said she and Duck ran to the swing. Kenny smiled and followed them.

"Thanks," said Lee.

"Anytime. We're looking out for ya," Andy said as he went back to the house. The gang went to explore the farm a little.

"Hey, check out this thing!", Odd said as he walked over to a small box.

"That must be the generator for the fence," Jeremy said as he and Aelita walked over. "I wouldn't mess with it if I were you," he said to the blonde. "Right. Don't wanna get electrocuted again," Odd said as he walked away.

A few minutes later, after Lee pushed Clementine a little bit on the swing, he left with Danny while the others stayed behind. Jeremy walked around, not paying attention to where he was going.

"Look out!"

"WHOA!", Jeremy cried as he quickly ducked down just as Duck swung forward on the swing.

"Sorry!", Duck yelled as he kept swinging while Kenny pushed him.

"It's OK," Jeremy said as he got back up and adjusted his glasses. He looked to the right and noticed that Anne was lying on a chair while using another one as a footstool with her arms crossed and had her hat over her eyes.

"Well, she seems comfy already," Kenny said as he stopped pushing Duck for a minute.

As soon as he said that, the Rugby twins snuck over to Anne and stood behind the chairs. They grabbed the chairs and Rugby gave a silent countdown with a smirk on his face before they yanked the chairs out from underneath Anne as she fell to the ground and landed on her back.

"OW! Son of a-!", Anne yelled as she hit the ground. The twins burst out laughing at this.

"GUYS!", she shouted as she picked up her hat and placed it back on her head.

"Uh-oh!", Rugby shouted before they took off running.

"Yeah, you better run!", she shouted at her "brothers" before running after them. Kenny and Jeremy cracked up at this. Jeremy glanced at Clementine and noticed that her hat was missing.

"Hey Clem, where's your hat?", he asked.

"I lost it, but Lee promised me that he was gonna find it," the little girl said.

"That's nice of him," he said with a smile as he looked up and saw Lee and Danny walking through the gate.

"Hey Lee!" he shouted as he ran over to them. He stopped when he noticed that Danny was carrying a crossbow.

"Uh, Danny? Where'd you get that?", he asked.

"You don't wanna know," Lee said. "So what's been going on here while we were gone?"

"Nothing much, except Rugby and Tim pulled a prank on Anne and are now hiding from her," the blonde said as he walked over to Aelita, who was looking at the porch.

"What're you looking at?", he asked before looking up to see Larry and Brenda talking and laughing.

"Uh... is he flirting with her?", Jeremy asked. "Looks like it," said Aelita. He smiled and shook his head.

"Jeremy!"

Jeremy turned to the right to see Kenny.

"Hey Kenny. What's up?", he asked.

"Lee and I found something. You might wanna see it," he said.

Confused, Jeremy followed him to the barn, where Kat, Duck, Andy, and Clem were sitting by a cow.

"Hi Jeremy!", said Duck.

"Hey Duck," he said as he noticed a huge white block next to them.

"What's this?", he asked, kneeling down.

"Daddy said it's called a salt lick," said Duck.

"Yeah, but don't lick it. It's gross!", said Clem.

Jeremy smiled and asked, "You didn't lick it, did you?"

"I don't know...", Clementine said after a couple seconds.

Jeremy chuckled before Kenny whistled and gestured for him to come over to where he and Lee were standing.

"What's going on?", he whispered once he came to them.

"Lee and I think there's something behind this door, but with Andy there...", Kenny whispered.

"You want me to make up some sort of distraction?", asked Jeremy.

"Exactly," said Kenny.

"Hold on," Jeremy said as he walked outside to the generator. He made sure no one was watching before he opened the lid and pulled a wire out. Once the generator stopped, he ran back to the barn.

"Hey, Andy. There's something wrong with the generator," he said.

"Really? OK thanks for letting me know," Andy said as he left to check on the generator.

"That should keep him busy for a bit," he whispered to Lee and Kenny. Suddenly, a bell rang. Duck got excited.

"It's dinner time!", he shouted as he, Katjaa, and Clementine left the barn. Kenny walked to the door and turned to Lee and Jeremy.

"I'll keep them busy. You two get that thing off of there," he whispered before leaving the barn. Lee and Jeremy turned to the door.

"Got a screwdriver?", asked Jeremy.

Lee picked up a multitool by his foot. "I do now," he said.

"Good. We can use that to get the screws off there," said Jeremy. Lee nodded and started unscrewing the bolts. While he did, Jeremy looked over a stall door and noticed a bunch of clothes thrown into a bin.

"Got it! Now let's see what's behind Door Number 1!", Lee joked as he pushed the doors opened. What they saw next shocked them. Inside the room was a bunch of cutting tools with a lot of blood all over the wall and floor.

"Didn't you two hear the bell? It's time for dinner," Andy said as he walked over to them.

"What's with all that blood?", asked Jeremy.

"We used to skin animals in there when we hunted them," Andy said before walking out of the barn. Jeremy and Lee looked at him with uncertainty before following him into the house.

"Wow! Look at all this food!", Odd shouted.

"Calm down, Odd," said Patrick.

"Everybody settle down and I'll get dinner ready," Brenda said as everyone except for Lee and Jeremy took a seat.

"Hey, where's Mark?", asked Jeremy.

"Don't worry. I already fed him and he's upstairs resting," Brenda replied.

"Uh... is it OK if I was my hands first?", asked Lee. Brenda nodded. "Bathroom's right out the hallway," she said. Lee nodded and walked away from the dining room. But he didn't go to the bathroom and snuck upstairs. Jeremy noticed this before following him.

"Lee, what're you doing?", he asked. "Something's not right about this, Jer," Lee told him before opening a closet. The blonde haired boy noticed a power cord and knelt down and flipped the ON switch. As soon as he did, a light turned on in another room. Lee noticed this and opened the door to the room where Mark was resting.

"What the?", he asked. Jeremy peeked through the doorway and gasped. "Where's Mark?!", he asked before his eyes wandered to a light shining behind a bookcase. They heard moaning coming from behind it. Lee pushed the bookshelf back and opened the door. Once they saw what was in it, their eyes widened. Mark was lying on the floor with both of his legs chopped off!

"MARK?! What happened to you?", Jeremy asked as they kneeled down.

"Don't... eat... dinner...", Mark said softly.

"AELITA!", Jeremy yelled once he realized what Mark meant. He rushed out the door and ran down the stairs, followed by Lee. They reached the dining room just in time to see Aelita and Clementine about to take a bite out of the meat.

"DON'T EAT THAT!", Jeremy shouted, stopping the two girls, and even the rest of the Lyoko Warriors from taking a bite. Danny, Andy, and Brenda just kept eating.

"What's your problem Einstein?", Odd asked.

"You're eating HUMAN meat!", the genius shouted.

"Whoa there Jer. You're gonna scare the kids," said Kenny.

"It's true! Go upstairs and you'll find a guy with both of his legs cut off!", Lee shouted.

Katjaa noticed what he said and immediately took away Duck's plate. "Mom. I was eating that!", Duck said.

"Well Brenda? Whaddya have to say for yourself?", asked Lee.

She sighed. "It's true."

Once she said that, everyone's eyes widened.

"We go after folks that were gonna die anyway," said Andy.

Danny looked up with an emotionless face and said, "Like ya'll."

"Clementine, RUN!", Lee shouted. Clem got up to run, but Andy drew his gun.

"Nobody's going anywhere! We got tons of use for ya'll," Danny said as he grabbed his rifle.

"Put your guns down! We're leaving right now!", Lilly yelled.

"Don't go near my friends!", Anne shouted, dropping her goofy personality.

"I don't wanna die! Mommy, what did I eat?", Duck asked fearfully.

"Everyone! Everything will be OK!", Lee shouted.

"Lee... Lee!", Clem said fearfully. Andy noticed this and grabbed her by the hair. That made something in Lee snap.

"LET HER GO!", he shouted as he ran towards him, but stopped when Danny pointed his rifle at his neck. Suddenly, there was some thumping coming from the stairs. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned towards the stairs. The sound was coming from Mark dragging himself towards them.

"Pleaassseeee... someone!", he pleaded. Everyone except the St. Johns family gasped at the sight. Lee turned around to face Clementine but got knocked out by Danny.

The blonde genius ran at Danny to try to punch him, only to get the handle of a rifle to the face.

...

...

Jeremy groaned as he opened his eyes to find that he was staring up at a gray ceiling. He turned his head to see that Larry was pounding on a door and was cussing very loudly. Lilly was leaning on the wall, puking. He turned his head the other way and saw that Aelita was sitting next to him. He sat up.

"Jeremy! Are you OK?", the pink haired girl asked. "Yeah," he muttered as Lee woke up and talked to Clementine.

"LET US OUTTA HERE RIGHT NOW!", Larry shouted, pounding on the door.

"You know that's not gonna work!", Anne said, jumping off of a salt lick.

"Where's everyone else?", asked Jeremy.

"After they knocked you out, they took the others outside and locked us up in here," Anne said.

"Yeah, and we need to find a way outta here to save them," said Kenny.

"THOSE PEOPLE ARE GONNA GET THEIR HEAD'S KNOCKED OFF ONCE I-", Larry shouted before clutching his chest and collapsing.

"DAD!", Lilly shouted, running towards him.

"I don't have a pulse!", Aelita shouted once she checked for one.

"He's gonna turn!", Kenny shouted.

"No he's not! He's not dead!", Lilly yelled as she started doing CPR.

"He may be a pain, but there has to be some way to save him!", Lee shouted before he took over for Lilly and started doing CPR.

When Clem saw Kenny grab a salt lick, she gasped. "I can't look!", she shouted as she ran to the corner.

"Come on, old man! Snap out of it!", Lee shouted.

Suddenly a salt lick landed on Larry's head, crushing it. They gasped and looked up to see that Kenny threw it, and he now looked like he was regretting what he just did.

"NOOOO!", Lilly cried.

"WHAT THE H**L, KENNY?!", Jeremy yelled.

"I-I'm sorry...", Kenny said as he started backing away. Clementine started crying. Lee knelt down to her.

"Is it over?", she asked.

"Yes. For now. We still need to find a way out of here," said Lee after hugging her.

Aelita and Jeremy walked over to an air vent. "You think this could get us outta here?", asked Aelita.

"I think so. We just need something to get those screws off," said Jeremy.

"Maybe the multitool could-", Lee said as he reached into his pocket. "Of course they took it," he muttered.

"Maybe there's something else we could use. I have a rock," said Clementine.

"Um Clem... a rock won't do that much good," Anne explained.

"But a coin might!", said Lee. "Anyone have a coin?"

Jeremy dug around in his pockets but found nothing.

"No... I left my money at the motel," Anne said.

Lee knelt down next to Lilly. "I think we've found a way out of here, but we need something to remove the screws off of the air conditioner," he said. "Larry mentioned to me that he kept coins in his pockets. We could use a coin to remove the screws."

Lilly sighed. "Do what you have to do," she said looking away. He nodded and dug around in Larry's pockets until he pulled out a quarter.

"That should do," Jeremy said as Lee walked over to the air conditioner and removed the screws with the coin. He pulled the unit off and handed it to Anne. Unfortunately, it was a little heavy for her and she fell to the ground from the weight.

"OOF!"

"There's our way outta here," said Kenny as he helped Anne back up.

"It's too small for us, except for Clem, and possibly Odd," Aelita said.

"Clem, can you crawl through the air duct and unlock the door on the other side?", asked Jeremy.

"I think so," she replied as Lee lifted her up.

"Be careful," Lee told her as she entered the vent. They waited for a few minutes until they heard a click and the door opened.

"Nice one Clementine!", Aelita said. Clem smiled.

"Lilly, you stay behind with the kids until it's safe to come out," Lee said as he and Kenny exited the room.

They waited for about 10 minutes. Anne started impatiently pacing around the room. Suddenly, there was a gunshot. They jumped at the noise.

"Come on!", Lilly shouted running out of the room with the others following. They stopped when they entered the room that Jeremy and Lee found earlier.

"Hey, check this out!", Anne said as she walked over to a table piled with weapons.

"These must've been from their previous victims," Aelita said.

"Maybe we could use them," Jeremy said as he picked up a couple guns. Anne picked up a crossbow. "Hey, I saw Danny carrying that when he and Lee came back," he said.

"I bet Odd might wanna use it," Anne said as she held onto it and grabbed some arrows for it. Along with that, she grabbed a few knives and stuffed them in her pocket and also grabbed a gun. Aelita grabbed a katana for Ulrich to use and a gun for herself. Lilly grabbed a rifle before they ran out of the barn past Danny, who was stuck in a bear trap.

"Not so tough now, are ya?", Jeremy taunted as he passed him. The three teens then walked over to the barn doors and crouched down. In the cornfield, a walker came staggering towards the electrical fence. Suddenly, something slashed it from behind and the walker collasped. They looked closely to see that it was Carley who had killed the walker. The three smiled when they saw her.

"Carley!", Anne said.

Carley got up and looked at the three.

"Jeremy? Anne? Aelita?", she asked as Ben and William appeared next to her.

"Is everyone OK? You guys have been gone WAY too long!", said Carley.

"We need your help! Larry's dead and the St. John's chopped off Mark's legs and tried to feed them to us!", Aelita explained.

"Holy sh**!", William said.

"Listen, Lee and Kenny have gone to rescue Kat and Duck. You have to help them!", said Jeremy.

"Right. Meet up with us as soon as you find the others!", Carley said as she, Ben, and William ran off.

**BOOM!**

The three teens looked up at the sky and saw lighting. "Great. I hate lightning and thunderstorms," Anne muttered before they heard shouting.

"Let us out!"

"If anyone's out there, open this freaking door!"

"What's going on out there?!"

The shouting came from a shed about 15 feet away from them. They ran to it and Jeremy removed a long piece of wood that was keeping it shut and the rest of the Lyoko Warriors tumbled out of it.

"Guys?", Aelita asked as she helped them up.

"Hey you three!", Yumi said smiling as she pushed herself up. "What happened?"

"We were thrown into a meat locker and Larry had a heart attack in there. Lee and Lilly tried giving him CPR but Kenny said that he was gonna turn and threw a salt lick on his head," Jeremy explained.

Their friend's jaws dropped.

"Crap... where are they now?", asked Ulrich. "Lee and Kenny went to rescue Kat and Duck. Lilly and Clementine are hiding in the barn. Carley, William, and Ben just got here and are trying to sneak in without the St. Johns noticing," Anne explained. She then remembered the crossbow in her hand.

"By the way, we found these in the barn," Anne said as she handed Odd the crossbow. "Thought you might wanna use it," she said. "Alright! I can't wait to use this bad boy!", the blonde shouted. Aelita handed Ulrich the katana. "Thanks Aelita," he said as he took it. Suddenly, they heard Kenny yell, "Don't you f**king hurt my son!"

"Come on!", Jeremy shouted as they ran towards their friends. When they got there, they found Andy holding a gun on the back of Duck's head.

"Let him go!", Kenny shouted. "That ain't gonna happen!", Andy said.

"Andy, don't!", Aelita shouted as she reached them. "Shut up, pinkie!", Andy growled.

While he was distracted, Kenny ran at him. Andy quickly turned around and shot him in the chest.

"KENNY!", Katjaa shouted as she ran over to check on him.

"NO! DAD!", Duck cried as Andy held the gun at the back of his head again.

"Who the h**l do you people think you are?! Look at what you've done!", shouted Andy.

"Hey, calm down," Lee said. "Calm down?! All we wanted was gas for our generator!", Andy yelled.

Suddenly, a bullet grazed his head. They looked around and saw that it was Carley who shot him.

"NOW!", Jeremy shouted as Duck ran away from Andy.

"Duck, stay with your parents!", Ulrich told the younger boy as he ran at Andy, who held the rifle in front of him. The two wrestled around with it before Ulrich knocked him off his feet and sent him tumbling down the hill towards the fence. Andy got back up and turned the generator on. Lee quickly ran over and punched him, but Andy kicked him in the stomach and grabbed him by the back of his leather jacket and started to drag him to the electric fence. He attempted to force Lee to bite into the wire as Lee struggled with him. As he struggled, Lilly and Clementine stepped out of the barn.

"LILLY!", he shouted. Lilly nodded and shot Andy, forcing him to let go of Lee. Lee got up and pinned Andy down so he couldn't get up. He then started to punch him repeatedly. Soon, the entire group came together and watched him punch the cannibal.

When Andy's face started to swell up, Carley and Jeremy decided to step in.

"Lee, stop!", Carley told him.

"I think he's had enough," said Jeremy. Lee nodded and got up.

"Is that all you got?! You ain't sh**!", Andy yelled as he struggled to get back up.

"It's OVER!", Lee yelled.

"F**k you! As soon as Danny and Mama get out here, you're all screwed!", Andy shouted.

"They're both dead," Lee lied. Andy's eyes widened at this.

"What the h**l did you do?!", he asked as Lee turned around and began to walk away.

"Don't you DARE walk away from me, Lee!", Andy shouted.

"Come back and finish this, Lee!", he yelled. Lee stopped and looked back at him, then the group. He shook his head and walked back to the group.

"Let's go," he said as he walked past them. They heard growling and saw a several walkers stumbling out of the woods and as they did, the generator stopped working.

"They're getting in!", Clementine said as she pointed at the walkers.

"That's not good," Ulrich muttered. "Come on! Let's go!", Lee shouted to them as they quickly left the dairy while Andy just collapsed on his knees and stayed there while the walkers invaded the farm.

Later...

The gang walked through the woods. "Man, I still can't believe that I almost ate Mark," Patrick said as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Yeah. We're lucky that Lee and Jeremy stopped us before we could take a bite," Yumi said as they looked at Lee, who was talking to Carley about what had happened, and Jeremy, who was silently walking with Aelita. Suddenly, Kenny said, "Hey, there's something up ahead."

They stopped walking and saw a station wagon in the middle of the road. Lee snuck over to it and found no one in it. The others looked in the back and gasped.

"Holy crap, look at all this food!", William shouted.

"This food could save all of us," Katjaa said.

"Wait guys, we don't know if these people are dead," said Ben.

"If we took this food, we'd just be more monsters ruining their lives," Lilly said.

"This stuff isn't ours," said Clem.

"Dad, who's car is it?", asked Duck.

"Don't worry. It's abandoned," said Kenny.

"But what if it's not? What if it IS someone's?" asked Clementine as everyone looked at the little girl. "You're right Clementine. We shouldn't take this," Lee said.

"I agree," said Jeremy.

"Me too. I'm not gonna take it," said Aelita.

"Well, the rest of us will," Kenny said as the others started to take the boxes of food and supplies out of the car while Lee, Clem, Jeremy, and Aelita watched.

"Lee, I found a hoodie in here. It looks like it could fit Clementine," said Kat. Lee looked at Clementine, who shook her head. "She's OK," he said as Carley walked over to them.

"I found some batteries in a box. I found some for your camcorder and found some for your walkie talkie," Carley said as she handed a pair of batteries to Clem.

"Batteries, huh? Think you can handle it?", Lee asked jokingly.

"You're not gonna let me live that one down are you?", asked Carley as she placed them into the camcorder. Once she saw the video, her eyes widened. "Lee, Jeremy, you're gonna want to see this," she said as she showed them the video. It showed them at the motel the first week they got there. It skipped a little bit and showed bandits ganging up on someone. It skipped again and showed them setting up the barrier while Lee chatted with Clementine. The camera turned around to face a woman who was recording the scene.

"Look at you. You're all sitting around acting like things never changed. It's not the dead that are the monsters, it's the LIVING. Don't you worry, little girl. Bandits got their eye on that dairy. As along as they keep giving them food, you'll be safe," the woman said before the video ended in static, leaving the three people who just watched it shocked.


	4. Chapter 4 Bandits Attack

Chapter 4

The streets of Macon, Georgia were deserted, except for five people cautiously walking down a street.

"Man, this place looks worse than before," said Odd.

Anne, who had switched back to her original appearance and had a hunting knife strapped to her right leg, looked around and asked, "Hey do you think there's any working pop machines out here?"

"Doubt it," Kenny said.

He glanced over at the crossbow Odd had.

"You sure you know how to use that thing?", he asked.

"You'll be surprised at how many arrows I've shot before," Odd said.

They kept walking down the street.

"You think that there's still some stuff left around here?", asked Jeremy as they walked over to the pharmacy, which now had a helicopter stuck in the roof.

"Who knows?", Anne asked as she picked up a couple Bleach manga books on the ground and stuffed them into a bag she had slung over her shoulder.

"OK you guys, here's the plan. We go over the rig, into the pharmacy, find and get whatever's in there," Kenny said as he climbed up a ladder on a truck. Lee tried to climb up it but it snapped off as soon as he touched it.

"Shoot...", he muttered. "Now what?", asked Jeremy.

"I'll find another way to get us up there," Lee said as he walked over to a car and examined it. Jeremy noticed something in the front and got down to get a closer look at it.

"It's some type of winch. We could use it to pull the car over there and use the car to help us up," said Jeremy. "Good idea, Jer," Lee said as he grabbed the cable and pulled it towards the truck.

"Lilly's pretty ticked at us," Kenny said. "She'll be fine," said Lee. "If you say so," Kenny said with a shrug.

Lee reached the truck and attached the hook to the axle. He walked back to the truck and flipped the switch to turn on the winch controls. When he did, the truck started moving towards the truck. It stopped when it bumped into it.

"Alright!", Odd shouted as Lee climbed up on the hood of the car and reached for Kenny's hand. Unfortunately, Kenny accidentally let go when he clutched a gunshot wound from a couple weeks ago that was still healing. Lee landed on the hood of the car with a thud. Everyone cringed.

"My bad...", Kenny said sheepishly.

"HELP!"

Everyone's heads snapped towards the direction of the scream. They saw two kids running around the corner. One was a girl about 10 years old with short blonde hair and the other one was a boy with brown hair that was about 9 years old.

"SOMEONE HELP US!", the boy shouted as they ran away from a walker. Odd and Anne immediately ran towards them.

"Odd! Anne! Get back here!", Jeremy shouted. "No! I'm not gonna let two kids get eaten by these things!", Odd shouted as he got his crossbow ready.

The two kids dove under a car as the walker stumbled towards them.

Odd whistled to get the walker's attention. "Hey ugly!", he yelled. The walker stopped and looked at him. As soon as it was facing him, Odd shot an arrow right at it's head, killing it. He walked over to the walker and pulled the arrow out of it.

"Nice one," Anne said as the two knelt down and peeked under the car, surprising the two kids under it.

"Hey, it's OK. We're not one of them," Odd said with a small smile on his face.

"You alright?", asked Anne. The girl with blonde hair nodded as Odd and Anne helped them out from under the car and lead them back to the pharmacy.

"You didn't get bit, did you?", Kenny asked as soon as they reached them.

"Kenny!", Jeremy said in an annoyed tone.

"No, we weren't bitten," said the boy with brown hair. "What're you two doing all the way out here?", Lee asked kneeling down.

"We came here after we escaped our home after it was surrounded by walkers. Our mom told us to get as far away from there as possible, so we did. We don't know what happened to her. We came here thinking it was safe, but I guess we were wrong," said the girl.

"It's OK now. You're safe with us," said Lee before standing back up. "Come on. We need to get those supplies as quick as possible," he said. The three teens nodded as they helped the boy and girl get onto the top of the trailer with Kenny. Suddenly there was another scream. A woman ran out of a store screaming as a walker chased her.

"We have to help her!", Jeremy said. "But if we do, we'll only have less time to gather supplies!", Kenny shouted.

"But-!", Jeremy shouted in protest. He was cut off when they heard a scream of pain. He turned and saw that a walker had bit the woman on the ankle.

"She's bit, there's no saving her now," Odd said. Jeremy sighed. "For once, you're right Odd," the blonde genius said. Lee looked doubtful and raised his rifle up to shoot the woman but Jeremy stopped him.

"Come on!", Kenny said as Anne and Odd climbed up to the top and helped Lee and Jeremy up.

"Stay close to us," Lee said to the boy and girl. They nodded and climbed into the pharmacy.

"OK, everyone, grab as much as you can get. Those walkers are gonna want more once they finish that girl!", Kenny shouted as everyone dashed to the cupboards and shelves. Jeremy jumped back and forth as he rapidly stuffed food and supplies into his bag. He tried to shut out the screams from the woman outside as he grabbed as much as he could.

"Got them!", he yelled.

"I got everything over here!", Odd shouted.

"Me too!", Anne yelled.

"Great job you two!", Kenny said before they heard snarls coming from outside the door.

"Sh**! Come on!", Kenny shouted as he jumped over the counter. The others followed him but Lee got knocked down by a door. It would have been funny if it weren't for the walkers that were on top of the door. Kenny and Odd quickly ran over and helped push the door off of him.

"Lee! The fridge!", Jeremy shouted. Lee nodded and tipped over the fridge, crushing a walker under it.

"Let's get outta here!", Kenny shouted before darting behind a chuck of debris and shot at a few walkers.

The others ran to him but were ambushed by a walker wearing military gear. It lunged at the girl with blonde hair.

"BACK OFF!", Odd shouted as he pulled the girl away from the walker and whacked it over the head with his crossbow. Anne kicked it in the back and sent it towards Lee, who smashed it in the helmet with his rifle a few times before pushing it into a pipe, impaling it. It growled as it tried to grab him.

"There's more coming! Come on!", Jeremy shouted as he ran to a hole in the wall that led outside. Odd and Anne helped the two kids get out first before climbing out with Lee and Kenny following them. They made sure that there were no walkers in the streets before running away from the pharmacy.

As they ran through the town, Anne's knee hit a wooden barrel as she passed by it.

"OW! Freakin' barrels...", she muttered before they dashed to the nearest exit in Macon and got out of the walker-infested town.

"That was way too close!", Jeremy shouted once he caught his breath.

"If we had taken longer, we would be walker food by now," Kenny said.

Lee looked down at the two kids Odd and Anne had saved. "By the way, we never caught your names," he said.

"I'm Jamie and this is my younger brother Billy," said the girl with blonde hair.

"I'm Lee. The one with the hat is Kenny. The one with the glasses is Jeremy. The two that saved you are Odd and Anne."

"Nice to meet ya," Anne said with a grin.

"OK, now that we've introduced ourselves, let's get outta here before more walkers come," Kenny said before they heard a growling to the left of them. They turned to see a walker sitting up. Odd walked by it and aimed his crossbow at the walker.

"Shut up," he said as he shot it in the head and walked down the street, not even bothering to get the arrow. The other seven quickly followed him.

...

...

They made it back to the inn. Jeremy looked up to see that Ben was on watch duty. Odd walked over to the barrier and pulled out a few arrows for his crossbow before entering the lot.

"We're back," Anne said as they walked in.

"Good, you're still in one piece," Ulrich said.

"Who're the two kids hiding behind Odd and Anne?", asked Carley, who now wore a green T-shirt under a purple jacket.

"This is Jamie and Billy. They're brother and sister. We saved them from a walker that was chasing them," said Odd.

"You think Lilly will let them stay?", asked Patrick.

"They're kids, so she HAS to let them stay with us," said Jeremy.

Billy looked up and noticed Ben sitting on top of the RV. "Why is that guy on top of the RV?", the boy asked.

Jeremy looked up. "Oh, him? That's Ben. He's on watch duty so he can make sure no walkers or bad people get in," he said grinning but his smile fell when he heard Kenny and Lilly arguing AGAIN.

"Are those two arguing again?", Carley asked in annoyance as they walked over to Lilly's room.

"... we'll die in here," they heard Kenny say.

"You're right. You could see someone sleeping and kill one of us," Lilly said.

"At it again, are we?", asked Carley.

"Can it, Carley," Kenny said before turning back to Lilly.

"Can't you guys get along for just a few minutes?", Jeremy asked with an annoyed tone as he, Anne, and Odd set their bags down on Lilly's bed. "Sorry Jeremy. It's just that we don't seem to agree on anything," Kenny said.

Lilly pulled out the items they had collected in Macon. "Wow, Macon still has these type of books there now?", she asked as she examined the Bleach manga books Anne had collected. She handed them back to Anne as she looked at the rest of the items.

"Nice job you kids," she said as she handed them back their bags.

"By the way, those aren't all we found in Macon," Jeremy said as he gestured to Jamie and Billy. "You brought more people?!", asked Lilly.

"Hey, they were being chased by a walker and we couldn't just leave them there! Besides, they're only kids!", Lee said. Lilly sighed in defeat. "Alright, they can stay. But you do know that this means that we have more mouths to feed, right?", she asked.

Jeremy just sighed as he and the others walked outside and left Kenny, Lilly, and Lee to their argument.

"I swear, if Kenny and Lilly don't knock it off, I'm gonna shoot myself!", William said as he sat down next to Rugby.

"For once, I'd like a simple "thank you". FOR ONCE," they heard Kenny said as he, Carley, Lee, and Kat stepped out of Lilly's room.

"What's with him?", Aelita asked. "Lilly's probably still mad at him for what happened in the meat locker," Jeremy said. "What exactly DID happen in the meat locker, Jer?", asked Ulrich.

"You don't wanna know," the blonde said simply as he walked over to Lilly's room, where he heard Lee and Lilly talking about stolen supplies.

"... there's a traitor out there. One of us, he or she, has been taking things," he heard Lilly say. "For real? Who do you got?", asked Lee.

"Yes, for real. I just know," she said. "You say something about stolen supplies?", Jeremy asked as he walked in. "Yes, all the good stuff"s being taken, like food and antibiotics," said Lilly.

"Not good. You want a couple of us to investigate?", asked Jeremy. Lilly nodded and pulled out something from under her bed.

"Earlier today, I found this thrown in the trash," she said. "What's this?", asked Lee. "Looks like some broken flashlight," Jeremy said as he adjusted his glasses.

"We don't get rid of equipment like this, we fix it. You'd only try to get rid of it if you had it when you weren't supposed to," said Lilly.

"OK, I'll poke around a little bit," said Lee. "I'll see if I can get Aelita to help," said Jeremy.

"Thank you," Lilly said as they stepped outside.

"A mystery!", they heard a voice say. Jeremy jumped slightly at the voice until they saw who it was.

"Dang it, Duck! You almost gave me a heart attack!", Jeremy said. "I'm sorry, I just heard you guys talking," said Duck.

"Well, you need to un-hear everything we said in there," Lee said as they walked away, but Duck followed them.

"Can I help?", asked Duck. "You two can be the greatest detectives, and I can be Dick Grayson, your ward!" the boy said. Lee sighed in defeat. "You can help. But don't tell anyone," he said. Duck nodded and said, "Secrecy!"

"So what do I do?", Duck asked after a couple seconds. "I don't know. Look around and tell us if you find anything weird or suspicious," said Lee.

Duck nodded. "I'm on the case!", he said as he ran off. Lee turned to Jeremy and said, "Go get Aelita. I bet she might be a big help with this."

Jeremy nodded and walked over to Aelita, who was chatting with Billy and Jamie.

"Is that your real hair color?", asked Billy. Aelita smiled and said, "Yeah. I was born with it."

"Wow, that's so cool!", said Billy. Jeremy walked over to Aelita and asked, "Hey Aelita, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure," Aelita said as they walked over to one of the couches. "Listen, Lilly said that she thinks someone has been stealing supplies from us," Jeremy whispered.

"What?! Seriously?", she asked. Jeremy nodded.

"I need your help looking for clues," he said. "You got it," said Aelita. "Where should we look first?"

"I'd look at the ground first. There might be evidence left behind there," said Jeremy.

"Got it," Aelita said as she walked away. Jeremy then walked over to Kat and Kenny.

"Oh, hey Jeremy. Sorry about my little outburst earlier," said Kenny. "Hey guys. Do either of you know anything about a broken flashlight?", asked Jeremy.

"Not really. We don't have many of those around here," said Kenny. "I saw some broken glass over by the ice machine. I meant to clean it up so the kids wouldn't hurt themselves with it, but I forgot," said Kat.

Jeremy nodded. "OK, thanks," he said as he walked away. He met up with Aelita.

"Find anything?", he asked. "No. Not really. Maybe we should ask about it?", Aelita suggested.

"I already talked to Kenny and Kat about it," Jeremy said. Aelita nodded before they noticed Clementine drawing something. They walked over to her and were followed by Lee.

"Hi Clem. What're you working on?", asked Jeremy.

"It's called a leaf rubbing. My teacher Ms. Moore taught us how to do them when we went to the Botanical Garden once," she said as she showed them the paper and the leaf. "See? They're exactly the same! Well, kind of..."

"That's cool," Jeremy said with a smile.

"You didn't accidentally break a flashlight, did you?", asked Lee.

"No. Did Duck say I did?", asked Clementine. "No. Did Duck break the flashlight?", asked Aelita.

"I don't think so. He's just always blaming me for stuff," said Clem.

"Like what?"

"Putting a bug on his pillow."

"Did you do that?", Lee asked with an amused look on his face. Clem gave a mischievous smile.

"Yes."

The three chuckled at her response before standing back up. "We'll talk to you later Clem," said Lee. "OK," Clem said as she went back to her drawing.

Aelita noticed something near the ice machine. "Hey guys, come over here," she said as she led them to the corner. On the ground were pieces of broken glass. "Kat mentioned something about broken glass earlier," Jeremy said as the trio peeked around the corner and found a pink X drawn on the wall. Lee looked at it closely and touched it.

"Huh. Chalk," he said.

"Pink. Hmm...", Duck said, once again surprising Jeremy.

"Duck!", Lee said in annoyance. "A clue!", Duck said. "Maybe," said Jeremy. "What do you think it is?", the hyper boy asked.

"I don't think it's anything," said Lee. "Maybe it's a sign," Duck suggested. "Could be. It's pink chalk, which is weird," said Jeremy. "OK. Back to investigating!", Duck said as he once again ran off.

"How about you two go back to the others? I think I got this from here," said Lee.

"If you say so," Jeremy said as he and Aelita walked over to the Lyoko Warriors, who were all sitting in a circle.

"Hey guys, what's going on?", asked Jeremy.

"Nothing much," Ulrich said.

"We were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with Odd," said Jamie. Odd looked up and nudged Jeremy.

"What?", asked the blonde. Odd pointed up and they noticed Lee and Carley talking.

"What do you think they're talking about?", asked Patrick.

"I don't know," Odd said as they looked up at the balcony. As they talked, Carley stepped forward and kissed Lee on the cheek.

Odd started singing. "Lee and Carley sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Apparently, Lee and Carley heard this and blushed. Lee walked down the stairs and over to the Lyoko Warriors.

"Very funny, Odd," he said. "Anyway, I need to tell all of you something."

"What is it?", asked Jeremy. Lee looked up at Carley, who gave him a nod.

"Remember when you met me and Clementine?", he asked as he looked back at them.

"Yeah, I also remember that your leg was bleeding," said Patrick. "I was in a car crash that day. That car was a police car," said Lee. "I was on my way to jail."

"What for?", asked Odd. "ODD!", Ulrich, Yumi, and William hissed.

"No, it's OK. You need to know. I was going to jail because I killed a guy in a fight," Lee explained.

"Whoa... thanks for telling us about this," Jeremy said as Lee walked away. Jeremy, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, William, Anne, Rugby, and Tim turned away from Patrick, Jamie, and Billy and started whispering.

"Guys, since he told us his secret, should we tell the others about ours?", asked William.

"I don't know," said Jeremy.

"How should we tell them about Lyoko?", asked Tim.

"Does it really matter right now? We are in a motor inn here in Georgia and France is miles across the ocean!", Anne said.

"You got a point there," Ulrich said.

Suddenly, Duck ran over to them and said, "Hey Jeremy! I found something!"

Jeremy knelt down. "What'd you find?", he asked as Duck pulled something out of his pocket. "I found this pink chalk over by the gate," he said. "Go get Lee and tell him to meet me by the gate," Jeremy said. "OK!", Duck said as he ran off. Jeremy walked over to the barrier and waited for a couple minutes before Lee and Duck walked over.

"I did a pretty good job, huh?", asked Duck. "You sure did," Jeremy said as he gave Duck a high five. Lee knelt down and noticed that there was more chalk on the ground. He pushed the gate open a little bit.

"Someone was here," he said before getting up. "You two stay inside the gate. You don't know what's out there."

"OK," Jeremy said as Lee pushed the gate open a little bit and stepped outside. They waited there for a few minutes before Lee came back in holding a bag.

"What's that?", asked Jeremy. "Take a look and see for yourself," Lee said as he opened up the bag and showed Jeremy what was inside it. The boy's eyes widened.

"Holy sh**," he said. Inside the bag was a bunch of supplies!

"I'm gonna go talk to Lilly about this," Lee said as he walked over to Lilly's room.

Jeremy ran over to the Lyoko Warriors. "Hey Jer, what's going on?", asked Odd. "Just a few minutes ago, Lee found a bag of medicine outside the gate!" Jeremy said.

"Why would there be a bag of medicine outside the gate?", asked Yumi.

"Well, Lilly thinks that someone's been stealing from us and-", Jeremy said before a loud voice rang out, "EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND!"

Everyone spun around and saw that a group of armed bandits have snuck into the camp.

"I MEAN IT!", one of the bandits shouted. "ALL OF YOU GET OVER HERE AND GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!"

Since most of everyone's weapons were in the RV, including Ulrich's katana, they had no choice but to do what they said. One of the bandits shoved Carley and Aelita to the ground when they rounded up the survivors.

"YOU DON'T F**KING STEAL FROM US!", another bandit shouted. "YOU MADE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF YOUR LIVES!", the bandit shouted as Lee stepped out of Lilly's room. The bandit noticed him and pointed his gun at him. "Hold it right there, a**hole!"

"Take it easy," Lee said as he held his hands up. "We have more supplies. We can keep the deal going."

Jeremy immediately knew that Lee was stalling them. He turned his head to Kenny and Carley and mouthed, "It's not him, just play along."

Kenny and Carley nodded as Lee said, "It was a mix-up. We'll make it worth your while!"

The bandit lowered his gun slightly. "I'm listenin'."

Jeremy looked up and saw Lilly standing on top of the balcony with a rifle. Aelita and Jeremy smiled before ducking their heads back down.

"How much do you want?", asked Lee. "How about twice as much as you've been giving us?", asked the lead bandit. "You got it. Done," said Lee.

"I suppose we oughta hash out some terms then," said the lead bandit. "I don't like no hash!", one of the bandits said.

"SHUT UP OR I'LL-!", the leader began to say but was cut off by a bullet to the head.

"WHAT THE H**L?!", one of the bandits asked as the leader fell to the ground, dead. While the bandits were distracted, Carley quickly picked up her gun and shot two bandits in the head. Everyone quickly scrambled away and grabbed whatever guns were on the ground and fired at the bandits. As they all scrambled and hid, more bandits came out of the woods and pushed the gates open.

"JEREMY!", Kenny shouted as he tossed him a gun. The blonde genius caught it and jumped behind a couch. He peeked over the couch and quickly shot a bandit in the head before scrambling over to another couch and grabbing his bag, which had some food and his laptop in it.

Anne did a dodge roll and grabbed her bag from a chair, which had the books she had collected, some food, and several cans of Pepsi in it. She grabbed her knives and a couple guns from on top of a box and scrambled over to Jamie and Billy, who were hiding with Ben and Carley.

Yumi grabbed a rifle and propped it up against a chair and managed to shoot two bandits in the head.

Patrick managed to grab a gun and shot a bandit in the head when it chose the wrong time to pop up.

William grabbed a shotgun and fired at a bandit hiding behind a barrel, killing it. He ran over to a barrel, grabbed a bag with some food in it, and ducked behind a board and helped Ulrich fire at the bandits.

Odd grabbed his crossbow and arrows and some arrows from dead bandits and ran over to the RV, but stopped when he saw a walker sneak up on a bandit and bite it.

"Oh sh**! Walkers!", Odd shouted as he turned to Lee. "They must've heard the gunshots!"

"Come on!", Lee shouted shooting a few walkers as Odd, Anne, Ben, Carley, Jamie and Billy dashed into the RV. Carley stood by Kenny as he kept trying to start the RV. When she looked out the window and saw the walkers coming, she gasped.

"SH**!", she yelled as she ran back outside and helped Lee fire at the remaining bandits and the oncoming walkers.

Aelita grabbed a bag and jumped behind the couch Jeremy was hiding behind.

"Come on! We need to get outta here!", she shouted. Jeremy nodded and grabbed his bag and gun and they dashed over to the RV, followed by Ulrich, William, Yumi, Patrick, Rugby, and Tim. As they climbed in, the engine came to life.

"I got it running!", shouted Kenny.

"Quick! In the RV!", Lee shouted as Clem ran over to him.

"LEE!", she shouted as she hugged him. "Hurry Clem. Get in the RV!", he said. The little girl nodded and dashed to the RV. Jeremy and Carley helped her in. Kat and Duck started to run over to them but were tackled by a walker. Lee quickly shot it in the head. Kenny ran out out and helped them up and they dashed back into the RV.

Jeremy and Ulrich poked their heads out the door.

"Lilly! Last chance!", Ulrich shouted.

"Get down here now or we'll leave you behind!", Jeremy shouted. Lilly ran down the stairs and jumped into the RV right before it left.

"EVERYBODY HOLD ON!", Kenny yelled as he floored it and ran over a few walkers as they drove out of the inn.

"Is everybody here?", Kenny asked once they were a good distance from the inn. Lee quickly looked around.

"Yeah. Everybody's here," he said.

"Good," Kenny said as he turned back to the road.

...

...

Soon, it had gotten dark. They all held onto something as Kenny drove. Jeremy and Billy sat on top of a bed above the built in sofas.

"I can't believe we lost everything!", Lilly shouted.

"We didn't exactly lose everything," Jeremy said. "Just before we left, a couple of us managed to grab our bags. They have some food in them along with some personal belongings."

"That's not the point! Someone told them where we were," said Lilly.

"There she goes again," Anne muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Now is not the time to get all paranoid, Lilly!", said Kenny. Apparently, Lilly didn't listen.

"Someone in here caused this mess," she said. "Hey, settle down back there. The bandits have been on our number for weeks," said Kenny.

"This is different. Someone has been slipping them supplies, but they didn't get they're last package, so they attacked us," said Lilly.

"Calm down back there. This is nuts!", said Kenny.

"Lee found a bag of meds outside the gate," said Lilly. Lee nodded in confirmation and said, "It's true."

Lilly turned to Carley. "So Carley, is there something you want to tell us?"

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! You just can't go pointing fingers at others!", Yumi shouted.

"Yeah. Carley's trustworthy," said Rugby.

"Think about it. She's always so eager to find out what supplies we've brought back," said Lilly. "Most of us are. Anne always asks if there's any Pepsi," said Kenny.

"Yeah. And besides, I wouldn't help those bandits even if my life depended on it," said Carley.

"Look, maybe we should take a vote or something like that," said Ben.

"Vote? What?", asked Lilly.

"Let's just let it go," said Lee. "Yeah. Nobody was stealing anything!", said Ben.

"Was it both of you?", asked Lilly. "What?!", Ben asked.

"I've seen you two together. Was it both of you? Look me in the eyes and tell me you didn't do it," Lilly said leaning closer to Ben's face.

"It wasn't me OR Carley!", Ben shouted. "Lilly, lay off him," Carley said.

Jeremy had enough of this. "Will everyone just **SHUT UP?!**", he shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone turned to him with a surprised look on their faces from his outburst. Suddenly they heard a thud and a squelch.

"What the heck was that?!", asked Odd.

"I hit something! We gotta pull over," said Kenny as he parked the RV on the side of the road.

"Everybody out," Lilly ordered.

Everyone but Katjaa and Duck stepped out of the vehicle. Anne peeked under the RV and found a walker stuck under a wheel.

"It's a walker. The wheel must've destroyed it's brain," she said as the walker suddenly growled and scared Anne and she fell on her rear.

"Never mind," she said looking up at the group.

"Everyone keep your eyes peeled while I try to get this thing out from under there," Kenny said as he tried to pull the walker out. Lilly turned to Lee and Carley and said, "You know, we shouldn't just kick you out. We should hear what everyone says."

"I think you should chill out!", Ben said. "I'm not gonna take this. You can push Ben around but you can't push me around," Carley said glaring at Lilly.

"I'm sorry if you feel that way, but I'm starting to think it was both of you," said Lilly.

"Come on! Stupid walker!", Kenny yelled. Patrick glanced over at him. "You sure you OK over there?", the pale boy asked. "Yeah, I'm good," Kenny said.

"We have no other options. Just tell me Carley did it and everything will be right as rain," Lilly said. "There's no way it was Carley. Someone else did it. It could've been someone sneaking into our camp!", said Lee. "That's what you think?", Lilly asked.

"Yes," was Lee's response.

"OK, then. Kenny?"

"I don't know! Just stop, would ya?", Kenny asked.

"Well your vote counts for you AND Kat, since she's still in the RV."

"We don't need all these votes! What do I have to do to get you to trust me?! I'll do ANYTHING!", Ben yelled desperately. "I'll do watches for a month, I'll get more food and supplies, just please let me stay!"

"Lilly, give him a break!", Yumi said. "Ben, just calm down," she said to the taller boy.

"Do we need any more evidence that this-", Lilly began to say but was cut off by Carley.

"Screw evidence!", she shouted. "Shut up Carley!", Lilly yelled before glancing over at Kenny again. "Kenny, what's it gonna be?"

"Just give me a freaking minute, will ya?!", Kenny shouted.

"You have until Kenny deals with that walker to confess!", said Lilly. "Stop this! You're torturing him!", Carley shouted.

"Everyone just stop!", Aelita shouted. "We'll never figure out who it is if you just keep blaming others!"

"You think you're so tough, but you're really just a scared little girl! Get the h**l over it," Carley said.

As she said those words, Kenny finally pulled the walker out and smashed it's head in. Everyone turned to him. Out of the corner of their eyes, William and Anne saw Lilly reach for her gun. She aimed it at Carley, who was distracted by Kenny.

"Now what the f**k's the problem?", Kenny asked.

Before Lilly could pull the trigger, William grabbed her wrist and slammed her against the RV as Anne whipped out one of her knives and held it against Lilly's neck.

"I wouldn't try that again if I were you," Anne said narrowing her visible eye.

Everyone stared in shock at what just happened, especially Lee and Carley.

"DROP IT!", William growled.

"But-", Lilly began to say.

**"I SAID DROP IT!"**, the navy haired boy yelled. She immeditately dropped the gun.

"Jeremy, get the gun," William ordered. Jeremy nodded and quickly picked up the weapon Lilly intended to use on Carley.

"Why, Lilly?", Lee asked. Lilly looked at everyone with a regretful look on her face. "I was just trying to protect everyone," she explained.

"By attempting to shoot someone that insulted you? Yeah, like that's gonna protect us," Ulrich said sarcastically.

"What should we do with her?", Anne asked, still holding the knife to Lilly's throat. "I say we leave her out here!", Kenny said angrily. "She's too dangerous! What if she tries to kill someone else?"

"Kenny, we can't just leave her out here. We'd be monsters if we did," Lee said.

"I agree with Lee. We can't kick her out now, especially when we're out in the open like this," said Jeremy.

"William, you can let her go now. Anne, put the knife away," Lee ordered. The two stepped away from Lilly, but still kept their eye on her.

"Everybody in," Lee said as everyone piled into the vehicle. Lee had Lilly sit down on one of the built in sofas. He then handcuffed her hands behind her back. Jeremy handed the gun to Ben, who was sitting across from Lilly and had Anne sitting next to him.

"Both of you watch her," Lee ordered. "You got it," Anne said.

He then handed the key to Jeremy. "Hold onto this until I say you can unlock the handcuffs," he said. Jeremy nodded and shoved the key in his pocket.

The RV started back up again and they drove off. Jeremy sighed and sat down next to Aelita.

"I can't believe Lilly tried to kill Carley!", said Aelita.

"Me either. She's lucky William and Anne stopped Lilly before she pulled the trigger," Jeremy said as he glanced over at Carley, who was sitting with Clementine. He then heard Lee, Kat, and Kenny discuss something up front, but he couldn't hear all of it. He watched as Lee walked over and sat down next to Clem and Carley. He was silent for a few minutes until he finally said, "Duck is bitten."

The four look at him in shock. "What?", asked Clementine. "Duck got bit by a walker back at the motel," Lee explained.

"N-no way...", Jeremy muttered. Lee sadly nodded and tried to cheer Clementine up with a funny story about his childhood, which worked a little. Jeremy leaned over to Aelita and asked, "What're we gonna do now, Aelita?"

She didn't answer. "Um, Aelita?", Jeremy asked again. She turned to him and he gasped.

Aelita now had pale skin and pure white eyes!

"AELITA?!", he yelled as the pink haired girl lunged at him and he struggled against her. "What happened?!", he asked as she got closer to his throat.

Just as Aelita was about to bite his throat, he woke up with a gasp and found Aelita, who was completely normal, sleeping next to him on the seat.

"Whew. Just a bad dream," he said to himself. He rubbed his eyes and glanced around the RV. Kenny was still driving, Lee, Clem, and Carley were still sleeping, Odd was sitting with Jamie and Billy on one of the beds, Patrick was up front with Kenny, William was staring out the window, the Rugby twins were thumb wrestling, Ulrich and Yumi were sitting next to each other on a seat, and Ben was still keeping an eye on Lilly.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!", Kenny shouted. "What is it?", Jeremy asked. "Road's blocked," Kenny said. "By what?", the blonde genius asked. "That," Kenny said as he pointed to a train with a few boxcars derailed except for one.

Kenny stopped the RV. "OK, everybody out," he said as he stepped out. Jeremy walked over to Anne, who was slumped over the table asleep while Lilly and Ben watched her.

"Anne, come on, we got a problem," Jeremy said. She sat up quickly and adjusted her hat.

"What's going on?", she asked sleepily. "Just come on out and you'll see," he said.

"Lilly, you come out here too," said Lee. "Wha?! But you saw what she tried to do last night!", said Ulrich. "We're gonna make sure she stays in our sight so she won't pull anything," said Lee.

Jeremy, Odd, William, Anne, and Aelita grabbed their bags and everyone grabbed their weapons before stepping outside.

"WHOO! Check this baby out!", Odd said as he examined the train.

"You think there's a way around it?", asked Patrick. "On foot, maybe, but I would not risk that," Kenny said.

"This place seems safe. The debris and brush should stop anything from creeping up on us," Jeremy said to the group.

"Why don't you, Lee, William, and I look around?", Ben suggested.

"Good idea," Jeremy said as the four climbed up onto the train and started investigating. Jeremy walked to the engine part and noticed something in it. He took a closer look and saw that it was a dead body.

"Guys, we got one," he called to the other three as they walked over. Lee got out his gun and opened up the door. He slowly stepped towards it and got ready to shoot it, but the body slumped over, proving that it was actually dead.

"Guess we should look him over," Lee said. He pushed the body off of the seat, revealing half of his head blown off.

"Well, that's lovely," Jeremy mumbled.

"Guess the crash took his brain out," William said, crossing his arms.

"Hey, guys, look. That button's blinking," Ben said as he pointed to a blinking button. "Push it!", he said eagerly.

"Push it?", Lee repeated.

"Are you serious?", asked Jeremy. "Here. Look," Ben said as he pushed the button. As soon as he pushed the button, some steam came out from under the train. Everyone outside heard this. Kenny got up and looked at the train with a smile.

"I think we found a way out of here," Carley said as the two climbed onto the train and stepped inside the cab.

"This thing actually works?", Carley asked as they stepped in. "Seems like it," said Lee.

"Any idea how this thing works?", Kenny asked while examining some of the levers. "I don't know. Ask him," Lee said gesturing to Ben, who was dragging the body of the train conductor out.

"No clue," said Ben. "How about you?", Kenny asked Jeremy.

"I don't know. I'm an expert in computers, but I don't know how to operate trains," said the blonde haired boy. "Me either. My dad didn't teach me anything about trains," said William.

"Hmm... I'll have a look at it, you guys go and take a look at the outside," said Kenny. "Sure," Jeremy said as they stepped out of the cab. Jeremy glanced over at Duck, who was in Kat's arms. He was starting to look a little pale, so the blonde haired genius climbed off the train and walked over to them.

"Hi Kat," he said kneeling down. "Hello Jeremy," Katjaa said, looking up from Duck.

"I... I know about Duck. Is there anything I can do to help?", he asked.

"If you could find something for Duck, like some water or food, it would be a big help," said Kat. Jeremy nodded and stood up. He walked over to the train and started looking around. He walked around to the front of the train and found a car crashed into it. He walked closer to it to get a better look. Suddenly, a walker strapped in it growled and swiped at him.

"HOLY SH**!", Jeremy shouted, jumping back. Lee and Aelita heard this and immediately ran over to him.

"Jeremy, what's- WHOA!", Aelita shouted once she saw the walker.

"I was looking for some food for Duck and came across this guy," Jeremy said.

"You stay back. I'll handle this," Lee said as he opened the door. The two teens stepped back as Lee opened the door.

"You're not gonna like this," he said and reached in and unbuckled the walker. It got out of it's seat and started to crawl towards them. Once it's head was close enough, Lee slammed the door on the walker's head multiple times until it stopped moving.

"That takes care of that," Lee said. Jeremy looked into the car and found a box of animal crackers in it. He took the crackers out of the car and walked back to Kat and Duck.

"Will this help?", he asked as he handed the animal crackers to Kat.

"Yes. Thank you Jeremy. He's not usually a picky eater. The only thing I can't get him to use is a fork," Kat said, making Jeremy smile a little bit. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot," he said as he reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of water.

"Here, he needs this more than I do," Jeremy said as he handed it to Katjaa. "Hope it helps," he said before he got up and went back to the cab, where Lee, Carley, and Kenny were working on figuring out how to get the train moving.

"How's it going?", he asked.

"Not so good. Still can't figure out how to get this thing working," said Kenny. "We found this, but the page was torn off," Lee said as he showed him a tablet with a page torn off. Jeremy adjusted his glasses and took a closer look at it.

"I can see some marks left from it, but I can't make them out," he said. "Maybe there's something we could use to scribble over them?"

"Good idea. Let's go look around," Lee said as the two walked out of the cab. "You check the RV and I'll go check the boxcar."

"Got it," Jeremy said as he jumped off the train and walked over to the RV. He climbed into the vehicle and glanced around. He walked to the front and found a pencil in a cup holder.

"A pencil. Good, it's sharpened," Jeremy said as he shoved it into his pocket and walked back outside. He walked over to the boxcar Lee was in and said, "Hey, Lee. I found a pencil. It should help us out with- who's he?"

An old man wearing a dirty brown jacket and dirty brown pants was talking to Lee. Lee turned to the younger boy and said, "Oh, hey Jer. This is Chuck. Chuck, this is Jeremy."

"Um, hi," Jeremy said. "Oh yeah! Lee, I found this in the RV. It should help us out with that tablet," the blonde genius said as he handed the pencil to Lee.

"Good job. Why don't you and Chuck go hang out with the others? I think I got this from here," Lee said. "Alright," Jeremy said as he and the old man jumped off the train and walked back to the group.

"Hey Jeremy, who's the geezer?", Odd asked, earning a whack on the back of the head from Anne.

"This is Chuck, and apparently, he lives on the train," Jeremy said.

"Mind if I join you guys? It seems that you're taking my home anyway," Chuck said.

"I guess you can," Jeremy said. Suddenly, there was a hissing noise coming from the train. Everyone's heads snapped towards the train. Lee and Carley poked their heads out the cab door.

"Guys! We got this thing working!", Carley shouted.

"YEAH BABY!", Odd shouted, pumping his fist in the air, making the group chuckle a little bit.

"Everybody get your stuff and get in the boxcar!", Lee yelled. "Wait, hold on! What about her?", Tim asked, gesturing to Lilly. Lee was silent for a minute.

"We've come this far, so we can't just leave her here," Lee said. "Alright, but I'm keeping my eye on her," Anne said. "Jeremy, you can take the handcuffs off her," Lee said as the boy unlocked the handcuffs before they climbed in. Ben and Odd helped Jamie, Billy, and Clementine into the boxcar before climbing in themselves.

"Is everybody in there?", Kenny shouted from the cab door. Lee looked around and did a quick count before shouting, "Everybody's here!"

"Good! Let's get the h**l outta here!", Kenny shouted as he went back in the cab and started the train up.

Jeremy sat down next to Aelita and the train chugged away on the tracks.

...

...

The train passed by a walker as it sped down the tracks. Nobody spoke much while they rode on the train. Jeremy glanced over at Duck, who was being held by Kat. Suddenly, the young boy started to cough up blood. Jeremy got up from his spot and knelt down in front of Kat.

"Jeremy, could you wipe that off his face please? My hands are a little full," Kat said. The blonde sadly nodded and picked up a napkin next to his foot and wiped the blood off Duck's face.

Kat looked up at Lee and said, "He's out of time. We need to stop this train."

The man nodded and turned to Carley. "Carley, watch Clementine and hold on to her if the train stops fast," he said. Carley nodded and Lee stepped out of the boxcar.

They waited for several minutes before Ulrich broke the silence and asked, "Why isn't the train stopping yet?"

"Lee could be having trouble getting Kenny to stop. All we can do right now is wait," said Yumi. After she said that, the train stopped. Lee and Kenny climbed out of the cab and walked over to the boxcar. Kenny glanced at Duck, who was now paler than Patrick.

"Ken... I think it's time," Katjaa said sadly.

"The boy's been bit, incase you haven't figured that out," Kenny said to Chuck, who was standing next to Ben with his arms crossed.

"We can't allow him to become one of those things," Kat said. "But what if he doesn't?", Kenny asked.

"I love you, and I love our son more than life itself. But we can't let Duck be like them," Kat said. "Isn't there some sort of pill or something we could give him that...", Kenny trailed off.

"Ken, it's here or nothing," Kat said, gesturing to her head.

"Who should do it?", Kenny asked. "I'll do it. No parent should have to do something like this," said Lee.

"Lee's right, Kat. We can say our goodbyes and... that'd be it," said Kenny.

"Lee, you'd be doing this family a great service. Why don't we take him into the forest, so Clementine, Jamie, and Billy won't have to see it?" Kat suggested. "Yeah," said Kenny. Kat looked at Lee and asked, "Will you give us a moment to say goodbye?"

"Of course," said Lee. The Lyoko Warriors watched as Kat picked the pale Duck up and carried him into the forest with Kenny. "What's going to happen to Duck?", Jamie asked.

"Lee's going to take care of him," Anne said. "How?", asked Clementine.

Jeremy glanced at Kat, Kenny, and Duck before saying, "He's gonna make sure Duck doesn't suffer anymore."

"Oh," Clementine said as she looked at the ground. Suddenly there was a gunshot.

"NO!", they heard Kenny yell. "What was that?!", Rugby asked.

"Carley, get Clementine into the train! Everyone stay here!", Lee shouted as he ran into the forest. Odd quickly helped Jamie and Billy into the train before the others climbed in.

"What's going on?", asked Billy. "I don't know. Just stay here with us, OK? It'll be alright," Jeremy said to the younger boy.

A few minutes later, there was another gunshot. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and watch as Kenny and Lee sadly walked back to the train.

"Where's Kat?", asked Patrick. Kenny stared at the black haired boy with a sad look on his face. Everyone gasped and immediately got the message. The gunshot from earlier... was from Katjaa shooting herself in the head.

Kenny climbed back into the train and started the engine up as they once again chugged away from the forest.

...

...

Jeremy sat on the floor with his legs hanging out the doorway as he stared at the woods. Aelita sat down next to him.

"How you doing?", the rosette asked. "Alright, I guess," the blonde muttered. "Man, a lot has happened today. You know, with Lilly's attempt to kill Carley and Kat and Duck," he said.

"I better go check and see how Clementine's doing," Aelita said as she got up. Jeremy sighed and stared at the forest again for a little bit before Lee sat down next to him.

"How's Clementine?", asked Jeremy. "She's OK. Carley cut her hair just a little bit ago so she couldn't be grabbed easily," said Lee. "That's a good idea," Jeremy said with a small smile on his face.

"What're we gonna do once we get to Savannah?", asked Jeremy. "We find a boat and we'll get away from the country," said Lee. "Uh... are you sure that plan will work?", asked Jeremy. "I don't really know. Ask Kenny. It's his plan," said the African American man.

Suddenly the train started to slow down. "Whoa, hold on. Why're we stopping?", asked Patrick. Jeremy poked his head out the door and saw the problem. A huge tank was hanging in front of the track. "That's why," Jeremy said as he pointed to the tank.

"Crap, looks like it's one of those tanks that carry gas," Anne said as she took off her hat. "Now what the h**l do we do?!", asked Rugby.

"Yo! You keep screaming like that and you're gonna get your face chewed off!", they heard a voice say.

They looked up to see a man that was about two inches shorter that Lee wearing a brown hoodie and an African American woman wearing a purple and white jacket standing on top of the bridge. "Are you guys gonna be trouble? Cause we could've just kept walking," said the woman.

"No, we're friendly!", Lee shouted. "Kenny put your hand down," he said when Kenny reached for his gun.

"That's what everyone says," said the woman. "We know," said Lee.

"Let's give these guys a break. You guys got a problem with your train?", the man asked. "Yeah. You're standing right in front of it," said Kenny. "You know, it's not so bad form up here. Send your buddy up to have a look," said the man.

"Lee, if anything goes sideways, we won't let them escape," Kenny whispered to Lee. "Anne and I'll go up there with you, just incase," said Odd. Lee nodded and the three walked over to the ladder. "If we come up there, you two better not be murders or thieves!", said Lee.

"I guess you'll just have to come up here and see for yourselves," said the African American woman. The trio climbed up the ladder and walked over to the two.

"Hey there. I'm Omid," said the man. "And I'm Christa," said the woman. "I'm Lee. The kid with the purple jacket and spiky hair is Odd and the girl with the pink hat is Anne," said Lee.

"Nice to meet you. So what's the deal with the train?", asked Christa. "We're driving it," said Odd. "Oh man!", Omid exclaimed.

"Could you help us out?", asked Lee. "What's in it...", Christa began to say but stopped when a certain little girl climbed onto the bridge.

"Oh, sh**! You guys have a kid!", Omid shouted in an excited tone. "What's your name?", asked Christa. "Clementine," said Clem.

Lee crossed his arms and playfully asked, "Oh, so he gets to swear?"

"What's your story?", asked Christa. "I came across Clementine alone the first day all this started. We've been together ever since. It's the same with these two and the other kids down there," said Lee.

"What about those other guys?", asked Christa. "We just met Chuck, but he seems alright," said Anne.

"You always have to worry about new people," said Christa. "I used to love meeting new people," said Omid.

"Same here. Especially new girls at my school," Odd said with a retarded grin.

"You might wanna watch out for Lilly. She gets paranoid easily and even tried to kill Carley about a day ago," said Anne.

"Yikes. We're sorry for anything that's happened to you. The train is awesome, though," said Omid. "This tank's your problem. We'll help you move it, but if we see anything we don't like, we're going," said Christa.

Odd walked over to the tank and examined it. "Sheesh, this thing is mangled! No way we could unhook it like that!", he said.

"I'm not sure it'd work, but a blowtorch might do the trick," said Anne. "Hmm... how about you two go and introduce Omid and Christa to the others while I look around for a blowtorch or something like that?", said Lee.

"Sure thing boss," said Odd as they climbed down the ladder. A few minutes after introductions, Lee and Clementine had gone into a shed to look for a blowtorch while Christa talked to Carley. Soon, the two came back with the tool.

"Good! You got it! Now let's get that thing outta the way!", Odd said as he, Anne, Lee, and Omid climbed up onto the bridge. Lee turned on the blowtorch and held it at where the tank was hooked up at.

"Look at that thing go!", Omid said with a grin, but it soon fell when he noticed the tank starting to move. He quickly pulled Lee out of the way before the tank could knock him off the bridge. "Whoa, thanks," Lee said as he got back up.

"No sweat man," said Omid. "This looks like it's gonna fall any minute. Just one cut and it's gone!", said Odd. Lee picked the blowtorch back up and glanced at the tank.

"It's too far for me to reach now," he said before handing it to Omid. "Here. The weak portion of the coupling is out of my reach."

"You think it'll be in mine?", asked Omid. "No, but Odd and I are gonna dangle you over that ledge," said Lee.

"WHAT?!"

A few minutes later, Odd and Lee held onto Omid as he dangled over the edge of the bridge and started cutting.

Meanwhile, Ben, who was standing on top of the train, glanced back at the tracks. He narrowed his eyes and gasped when he saw what was coming. A whole herd of walkers was headed their way!

"Guys! There's something coming!", shouted Ben. "OH CRAP!", Odd shouted once he saw the herd. "There must be thousands of them!", Lee said.

"We gotta get outta here NOW!", Ben shouted as he climbed down and got into the boxcar.

"Come on!", Jeremy shouted as everyone climbed onto the train. "It's going! Pull me up!", Omid shouted as Odd and Lee quickly hauled him back onto the bridge as the tank collapsed and landed on the ground. Odd ran over to the railing and looked down at the group.

"KENNY! START HER UP!", Odd shouted. Kenny nodded and pushed the lever forward. The train started moving. The four on the bridge ran to the ladder, only to find the ladder smashed.

"Now what do we do?!", asked Omid. Odd glanced at the gas leaking from the tank and got an idea. "Lee, get the blowtorch!", he shouted. The man nodded and handed the torch to Odd, who tossed it over the edge and it landed in the gas, setting it on fire.

"That should hold them off!", Odd shouted as the quartet ran to the other side of the bridge.

"We're gonna have to jump!", Lee shouted. "WHAT?! No way!", Omid yelled as they got on the railing.

"GUYS! COME ON!", Carley yelled.

"If you wanna live, you'll have to jump!", Lee told the man. "OK!", Omid said as the two jumped off the railing and landed on the train. Omid, however, didn't have a smooth landing and bounced off the train and landed on the ground.

"It's our turn now!", Anne shouted as the two teens climbed onto the railing.

"On three! One... two... THREE!", Odd shouted as they jumped off the bridge.

"FOR NARNIA!", Anne shouted in fear as they flew through the air and faceplanted on the boxcar. Everyone inside the boxcar cringed at the sound.

While that was happening, Christa jumped out of the train to help Omid up.

"HURRY!", Lilly shouted. Lee pulled in Omid, who was limping because of the landing, and Carley pulled in Christa.

Odd and Anne swung themselves into the boxcar. "Ow... that hurt," Odd said as he clutched his forehead.

"'For Narnia?' Seriously?", William asked after the two goofballs landed in the train.

"Hey, I was scared sh**less, so I just yelled the first thing that popped into my head!", said Anne.

Jeremy just rolled his eyes at the girl and knelt down next to Omid and Chrsita and said, "Since you're with us now, welcome to the group."

"Thanks," said Christa. Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi poked their heads out of the boxcar to see the herd of walkers getting smaller and smaller as they sped away.

"Let's hope that fire keeps them busy," said Yumi. The other two nodded their heads in agreement before sitting down as the train sped away from the fire.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"OK. Your turn," said Odd as he and Anne stared at the forest they were passing by.

"Alright. I spy something… green," Anne said.

"Tree," Odd said immediately.

"Dang it!", Anne shouted.

"My turn. I spy something... brown," said Odd.

"Tree trunk," Anne said.

Odd sighed. "That's what you said the last few times!"

"Well, there's nothing out there but trees!", Anne pointed out.

"Why don't you play Rock, Paper, Scissors then?", asked Jamie.

"We already played that game ten minutes after getting on this thing," Odd said to the younger girl.

"How about you read those books you found in Macon?", Carley suggested. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot I had those," Anne said before pulling a Bleach book out of her bag and started reading it.

Yumi glanced at Omid, who was sitting next to Christa. "How's your leg doing?", she asked him. "It still hurts like h**l," said Omid.

"Don't worry. When we get to Savannah, we'll find something to make the pain stop," said Jeremy.

William sighed and glanced over at Chuck, who had his guitar lying next to him.

Chuck noticed this and chuckled before saying, "You interested in my guitar?"

"Well, yeah, it's been a while since I've saw one," said William. "You know how to play it?", asked Chuck.

"Yeah," William said before Chuck handed the instrument over to him, surprising him a bit.

"Here ya go," said the old man.

"Hey William, why don't you play a tune?", asked Odd. "Yeah, I bet that Jamie, Billy, and Clementine would love to hear some music," said Carley with a smile. "It might even lighten the mood a bit."

William chuckled. "OK, any requests?"

"How about... "Safe and Sound"?", asked Yumi.

"OK, but you're singing it, not me," William said.

"If you say so," Yumi said as William began to strum on the guitar. Yumi then began to sing.

_"I remember tears streaming down your face _

_When I said I'll never let you go._

_When all those shadows almost killed your light._

_I remember you said "Don't leave me here alone"_

_But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight._

_Just close your eyes. The sun is going down._

_You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now._

_Come morning light, you and i'll be safe and sound."_

Yumi glanced at Aelita and asked, "You wanna sing the next part?"

Aelita nodded and started singing.

_"Don't you dare look out your window_

_Darling everything's on fire_

_The war outside our door keep's raging on_

_Hold on to this lullaby_

_Even when the music's gone_

_Gone..."_

Aelita and Yumi sang together on the next part.

_"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down._

_You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now._

_Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound._

_Ooh... ooh... oh..._

_Ooh... ooh... oh..."_

They paused and glanced at everyone, who was smiling as they sang, before Yumi softly sang a solo that sent chills down Ulrich's spine.

_"Just close your eyes, you'll be alright."_

The two girls sang the next verse together.

_"Come morning light, you and i'll be safe and sound..."_

Everyone clapped and cheered at the two girls when the song was finished.

"That was a beautiful song," Clementine said. "I agree. It almost makes you forget all this is happening," said Jeremy.

"OK, for the next song, I'd like EVERYONE to sing along. That includes you, Lee," William said with a smirk.

"What?", asked Lee.

"You heard me," William said as he began strumming on the guitar. "I'll start us off," he said as he began to sing.

_"Step one, you say "We need to talk."_

_He walks. You say "Sit down, it's just a talk."_

_He smiles politely back at you. You stare politely right on through."_

Anne sang next.

_"Some sort of window to your right_

_As he goes left and you stay right_

_Between the lines of fear and blame_

_You begin to wonder why you came."_

Carley started singing.

_"Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend_

_Somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life."_

Lee glanced at Clementine, who looked at him with pleading eyes. He shrugged and began singing.

_"Let him know that you know best_

_Cause after all you do know best_

_Try to slip past his defense _

_Without granting innocence."_

Aelita sang the next part.

_"Lay down a list of what is wrong_

_The things you've told him all along _

_And pray to God he hears you_

_And pray to God he hears you."_

Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremy sang the chorus.

_"Where did I go wrong? _

_I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life."_

Surprisingly, Lilly also started to sing.

_"As he begins to raise his voice_

_You lower your's and grant him one last choice_

_Drive until you lose the road_

_Or break with the ones you've followed_

_He will do one of two things_

_He will admit to everything_

_Or he'll say he's just not the same and you'll begin to wonder why you came."_

Aelita, Odd, the Rugby twins, and Patrick sang the chorus.

_"Where did I go wrong?_

_I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life."_

Soon everyone in the boxcar was singing along.

_"Where did I go wrong?_

_I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night _

_Had I known how to save a life..._

_How to save a life..._

_How to save a life_

_Where did I go wrong?_

_I lost a friend somewhere along in the bitterness_

_And I would have stayed up with you all night_

_Had I known how to save a life_

_How to save a life..._

_How to save a life."_

By the time they finished singing the song, everyone was smiling.

Later...

Clementine had gone up to the cab with Lee, Carley, Ulrich, and Aelita and had fallen asleep.

Lee glanced at Clementine and saw a picture in her backpack. He quietly walked over to her and pulled the drawing out. The picture had Kenny, Duck, and Katjaa on it holding hands with smiles on their faces.

"Aww...", said Aelita.

Suddenly, the cab door opened up and Kenny stepped inside. Lee quickly put the picture back in Clem's backpack.

"Next stop, the Atlantic," said Kenny.

"What? We're almost there already?", asked Ulrich as they stared out the window and saw a city.

"We have to find a boat. We just have to," said Lee.

"We will," said Kenny.

Suddenly, there was some static coming from Clementine's radio.

"What the...?", Ulrich asked as Lee picked up the walkie talkie.

"Can't wait for you to get to Savannah, Clementine. I got your parents right here. And be sure you find me whether Lee wants you to or not. Now, what I need-", a voice said from the radio before it shut off. Everyone stared at the walkie talkie in shock.

"I thought Clementine said that thing was busted," said Carley.

"Sounds like somebody knows where we're headed to," Ulrich said.

"And I doubt we're gonna be happy when we find out who it is," said Kenny as they all stared out the window at Savannah.


	6. Chapter 6 Savannah

Chapter 6

The gang cautiously walked through the streets of Savannah.

Odd had his crossbow ready, Chuck was carrying a shovel, Carley had her gun out, Ben was nervously looking around and had a gun in his hand, Jamie and Billly stuck close to Odd and Anne, Ulrich had his katana out, Kenny held a gun out in front of him, Omid was limping due to his injury, and everyone else cautiously observed the streets as they held their weapons.

Clementine glanced up at Lee, who had her walkie talkie.

"Can't I just hold it?", asked Clem.

"Not now, Clementine. Maybe later, OK?", said Lee.

"OK...", she said reluctantly.

"How's Omid doing?", asked Yumi.

"I'm fine," said Omid.

"No, you're not fine, you need to rest," said Christa. She glanced back at the others and said, "He needs to rest."

"How much farther Kenny?", asked Carley.

"Should be just a few more blocks," said Kenny.

"And there will be boats there?", asked Christa.

"There better be. I'm starting to get sick of walking," said William.

Suddenly, a bell rang.

"What the h**l?", asked Omid.

They looked up at a tower and saw a bell ringing.

"I guess this city isn't so dead after all," said Patrick.

"Guys, keep moving. There's no one ringing that bell. It's automatic," said Kenny.

Lee looked at his watch and asked, "What kind of church bell goes off at twenty past the hour?"

He looked up and saw a person on a roof running away from the bell tower.

"There's someone up there!", he said, getting the group's attention.

"You sure? I don't see anything up there," said Anne.

"Hey! You up there!", Odd shouted, waving his arms. Yumi whacked him on the back of the head.

"Odd, you idiot! Remember what happened last time?", Yumi asked, referring to the time they first arrived in Macon.

"Oh yeah. Sorry," said the blonde boy.

Suddenly, Clementine's radio came on. Everyone looked at it in surprise.

"If I were you, I'd get out of the streets right now," said a mysterious voice.

Lee picked up the radio and asked, "Who is this?"

Suddenly, the bell went off again. Chuck turned around and said, "Ask not for whom the bell tolls."

Rugby turned around and asked, "Man, what're you talking about?"

The others turned around and their eyes widened.

"It tolls for thee," Chuck said.

There were walkers coming out from everywhere... and they were headed straight towards them.

"Everybody, RUN!", Lee shouted.

The group got their weapons ready and quickly ran.

Kenny, Carley, and Christa shot a few before catching up to the others. Unfortunately, a walker grabbed Kenny by the ankle and tripped him. He held onto a stop sign as he reached for his gun.

"KENNY!", Jeremy shouted in alarm. He quickly drew his gun and shot the walker in the head.

"AAH!", Clementine screamed. Jeremy, Carley, and Lee turned around to find Ben and Clem cornered by walkers. "Ben! Help her!", Lee shouted.

_"There's an opening to our left... but if I leave Clementine, Lee and Carley will KILL me!",_ Ben thought as he looked at the three. He quickly picked up Clementine and ran through the opening, getting away from the walkers.

Meanwhile, Jamie and Billy were being cornered by a walker, but Chuck stabbed it in the stomach with his shovel.

"CHUCK!", William yelled as he and Anne ran over to Jamie and Billy.

"Hurry up and get out of here! I'll catch up to you!", Chuck shouted.

"But-", Anne began to say.

"GO!", Chuck shouted as he stabbed another walker with his shovel.

They nodded and they quickly ran back to the group.

"Now what?!", Tim asked as he shot a few walkers with his gun. "This way!", Kenny shouted as he led the group through a gate. As soon as they got in, Omid tripped and fell.

"AGH!", he cried out when he hit the ground.

"OMID!", Odd shouted as he and Christa helped him up.

"I'll get the gate!", Jeremy shouted once everyone was in. He shut the gate and walked back to them. "Is everyone OK?", the blonde haired boy asked.

"No, Omid's wound has opened back up. It's gonna get infected. We've gotta get him inside and clean it up!", said Christa before asking, "How's that door coming, Kenny?"

"I'm working on it!", said Kenny. "Work faster would you?", said Christa.

"I'll see if I can find us a way in," Lee said as he walked to the door and windows.

Odd looked around the yard and found a doghouse.

"Look's like whoever lived here owned a dog," Odd said. He then sighed. "Kinda reminds me of my little diggity dog."

"Odd, this no time to think about your dumb mutt!", said Ulrich.

"Hey! Kiwi's not that dumb! Remember, he helped us find Aelita when she disappeared in the woods!", said Odd.

"Yeah, but he also ate part of my textbooks," said Jeremy.

"Not to mention he stole my hat and nearly buried it," said Anne.

Carley looked at Odd in confusion. "You named your dog Kiwi?", she asked.

"Yeah, I love kiwis, so I decided to name him after them," said Odd.

"Can you stop talking about fruit, please? You're making me hungry," said Yumi.

"Sorry."

While they were talking, Lee, Kenny, Jeremy, and Ulrich were still working on trying to get the door open.

"Sheesh. Whoever boarded this up did a pretty good job," said Ulrich.

"How're you doing with the window, Ben?", asked Jeremy.

"No luck. I can't find a way in," said Ben.

Jeremy sighed and looked down. He then noticed something on the door.

"Hey, look at this!", he said as he knelt down to get a closer look.

"It's a doggie door," Ulrich said.

"I already tried that. It's locked too," said Ben.

"Who the h**l ever heard of a locked doggie door?", asked Kenny.

"I have," Omid said from his spot in the yard. "My neighbor had one just like that. It's radio controlled. The dog wears a collar that has a chip in it so whenever it got close to the door, it opens up."

"OK... where's the dog?", asked Ben. They glanced over at a mound of dirt next to the dog house.

"There's your answer right there," said Lee as he grabbed a shovel and prepared to dig.

"Careful. Digging up dead things like this isn't what it used to be," said Patrick.

Lee nodded and started digging. Clementine walked over to him and asked, "What's buried down there?"

"It look's like it's been here a while. Clem, go sit with Omid and Christa, OK?", Lee asked. The girl nodded and sat down next to the couple as Lee kept digging.

When he got done digging, the smell really got to the others in the group.

"Oh, that smells nasty!" Aelita said as she covered her nose.

"It smells worse than Odd's feet," Ulrich said with a grimace.

Lee knelt down and carefully reached in and grabbed the collar.

"I can't get it off...", he muttered as he lifted the head up a little... only for it to slip right off. This disgusted the entire group.

"Aah!", Lee said in disgust.

"EUGH!", Anne shouted.

"That's disgusting!", Carley exclaimed.

"That is NOT cool!", Ben said.

Christa gagged and threw up in a bush. Clementine looked at her and asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine, honey. It's just the smell," said Christa.

"You sure?", asked Omid. Christa nodded and they walked over to the doggie door. Lee held the dog's collar near it and they heard a click.

"It worked!", Jeremy shouted happily.

Lee opened the doggie door and peeked into the house.

"Do you see anything in there?", asked Lilly.

"No. Lemme see if I can reach the handle," he said as he stuck his arm in. He tried to reach it but couldn't get it.

"It's no use. I can't reach it," he said as he got back up.

"Let me try. I think I can get it," Ben said. Before he could get to the door, Clementine crawled through the doggie door. Everyone's eyes widened.

"Clem, you OK?!", William asked. He didn't get an answer.

Suddenly, the door opened and Clementine walked out.

"Ta-da!", she said with a smile. The gang sighed in relief.

"Good job Clem!", Lee said to the girl.

"Yeah, way to go," said Ben.

"I did good, right?", asked Clem. "You sure did," said Yumi.

"Uh, can we have this conversation inside? My leg's starting to hurt like h**l," Omid said as they walked inside the house.

Christa helped Omid onto a couch and walked over to Lee and asked, "When were you gonna tell us that the radio is working?"

"We just found out that it was working yesterday. Kenny, Carley, Aelita, Ulrich, and I were gonna tell you about it," said Lee. "So you kept it from the rest of us?", asked Christa.

"Who cares about the radio working? I'm more worried about the guy that was on it," said Kenny. "Whoever it was, he must have been close enough to see us, and we didn't see anyone besides that guy in the bell tower," said Christa.

"Why would they bring the dead out like that then warn us about it?", asked Carley.

"I think that whoever was on the radio was trying to help us," said Lee.

"If you ask me, he didn't sound too friendly," said Tim. "Whoever it is, they're watching us, following us, and they don't want us to find out who they are."

"Guys, why don't we just rest for a little bit and wait for those walkers to wander off?", asked Jeremy.

"Good idea, Einstein," William said. "But we gotta see if this place is secure first."

"Ben and I will check upstairs. You guys got downstairs, and make sure to check every door," Kenny said as he and Ben went upstairs.

Jeremy walked over to a closet and got his gun ready. He yanked it open to find nothing but a broom.

"Nothing in here," he muttered as he closed the door.

Odd got out his crossbow and opened another closet, finding nothing.

Anne and Ulrich walked over to a set of doors. They got their weapons ready and yanked it open. Something fell out, but it was only another broom. They sighed in relief and closed the doors.

William cautiously opened a door, only to find a bathroom.

"The area's clear. Only things we found were a mop and a couple of brooms," Aelita said once the Lyoko Warriors got done searching the house.

"Good. That means I can finally relax," Anne said as she sat on a couch.

"Is it safe?", Jamie asked. Lee nodded. She sighed in relief and sat in a chair.

"Good. I was just asking Clementine who the man on her radio is," said Christa. "It's OK, honey. You can tell us."

Clementine was silent for a moment.

"Go ahead Clem. You're not in trouble," Lee said.

"It's just a friend. I don't think he wants to hurt us," said Clementine. "I told him I was trying to find my parents and that they were in Savannah. He really seemed nice and I think he wants to help me find them."

"Clementine, I don't think that's what he wants," said Carley.

"LEE!"

Everyone turned to the stairs and saw Ben.

"Lee, you need to get up here now," said the teen.

"Why? What's wrong?", asked Lee.

"It's Kenny."

Lee and Ben quickly ran up the stairs and Jeremy followed them. They stopped in front of a ladder that lead to the attic.

"Kenny said he thought he heard something up there and went up to have a look. I can't get him to come back down," said Ben.

"We'll go up to have a look. You stay here," Lee said as he and Jeremy climbed up the ladder.

"Kenny? You alright?", Lee asked as they reached the attic. Kenny was on his knees and staring at something. They walked over to him and gasped when they saw what Kenny was staring at.

"Holy crap...", Jeremy said softly.

A small walker, about ten years old, slowly stood up. It had no muscle on it at all and looked like it could barely stand. It took a step towards the three but collapsed.

"Kinda looks like Duck, don't he?", asked Kenny.

"What the h**l happened to him?", asked Lee.

"Nothing on him. Must have starved to death up here," Kenny said. "I don't know if I can do it. I couldn't do it before, can't do it now."

"I'll do it," said Lee. Kenny looked up and asked, "Are you sure?"

"I guess we'll find out," Lee said as he walked towards it. He got out a wrench and looked at Kenny, then back at the walker.

"I can't watch," Jeremy said as he turned around just before Lee bashed the walker in the head.

"We should bury him," said Kenny. "I'll take care of it," Lee said as he picked up the walker, climbed down the ladder, and carried it outside.

Jeremy went back to the living room. Just as he had sat down next to Aelita, he heard Lee yell, "Who are you?! What the h**l do you want from us?!"

"What the h**l?!", he asked as he, Aelita, Ben, Carley, Christa, Kenny, Odd, Ulrich, and Clementine ran outside.

"Lee, what's going on?", asked Carley. "There was someone standing by the fence, watching us," said Lee.

"A walker?", asked Ben. "No, he was too fast to be a walker," said Lee.

"You think it's the same guy following us?", asked Odd.

"Probably," said Lee.

"OK, that's it. We've stuck around here long enough. It's time to get down to the river and find a boat," said Kenny.

"I don't know if Omid's well enough to move yet," said Christa.

"Well, he better get to feeling better soon, cause I'm leaving right now to get a boat," said Kenny.

"Hey, we only checked the house to see if it was secure, so maybe we should look for supplies here," said Jeremy.

"You can search if you wanna. I'm done with this house. We came to this city to find a boat, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do," said Kenny.

"Maybe it's not such a bad idea to check this place out one more time," said Ben.

"I SAID I'M DONE WITH THIS HOUSE," Kenny said rather loudly.

"How about we do both?", Lee said after everyone was silent for a few seconds. "Ben, you can take one last look at this place while Kenny and I go get us a boat."

"Can I come? Maybe my parents are there," said Clementine.

"We need to focus on the boat right now, Clem," said Lee.

"OK," Clementine said.

"Come on, let's go back in," Christa said as she, Clementine, Carley, Ben, Jeremy, and Aelita walked back inside.

"Hey, if you're gonna look for a boat, you're gonna need our help," said Ulrich. Lee nodded and said, "Go grab your gear, you're gonna need it."

Ulrich and Odd nodded, walked back inside, grabbed their weapons and bags, and walked back outside, where Kenny and Lee were waiting for them.

"You ready?", asked Kenny. The teens nodded.

"Let's go get that boat then."

...

The streets of Savannah were deserted, just like Macon. The four survivors cautiously walked down the road with their weapons ready. Ulrich peeked into a car, but found nothing.

"You think we should look for Chuck?", asked Odd.

Kenny ignored his question and said, "River's right up ahead."

Suddenly, the bell rang again.

"Hold on, this is a different bell. It's much farther off. Whatever it is, it's gonna attract a lot of walkers," said Ulrich.

Kenny got out his gun once he saw the walkers on a street several feet away from them. The four quickly ran over to a corner and hid in it.

"What the h**l's going on?", asked Kenny.

"No idea, but I think that whoever's ringing that bell is doing us a favor," said Ulrich.

When the walkers were out of sight, they got back up and kept walking.

Lee and Odd looked behind them and saw nothing.

"Whew. Nothing's following us, so I think we're-"

Odd immediately shut up when he saw the river. There was almost nothing there except for a half sunken boat.

"There gotta be a boat," Kenny said.

"I don't know. Maybe we should think about a Plan B," said Lee.

"This is the plan! If you don't like it, you can go back to the house, but I'm not giving up that easily!", Kenny said as he ran to the docks.

"Kenny, wait up!", Odd shouted as they followed him.

"This one should be salvageable," said Kenny as he looked at the half sunken boat.

"Seriously? This boat is mangled! There's no way it'd float!", said Ulrich.

"You got a better idea?", asked Kenny. He then sighed and said, "How about you guys go look further along the riverfront? Maybe there's something useful at the other end."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea. We shouldn't split up too far," said Lee.

"You see that telescope over there? You won't have to. All you have to do is look through it. See what you can find," said Kenny. They nodded and walked over to the telescope, but stopped when they saw a barrier.

"Holy sh**," Lee muttered.

It was a barrier of walkers. Some were impaled and the others were scrunched together.

"That's just sick," Ulrich said as they walked over to the telescope. Lee peeked into it, but saw nothing.

"Great. Needs a quarter," he said.

Odd dug into his pockets and pulled out a quarter.

"Here ya go."

Lee took the quarter and inserted it into the telescope. Kenny walked over to them, but stopped when he saw the barricade.

"Well, what do you see?", asked Ulrich.

"Nothing much. Wait, hold on," he said as he turned the telescope to the left.

"Let me see!", said Odd. Lee moved over so the teen could look through the telescope.

There was someone in an orange jacket and blue jeans over by the bridge. He watched as the person hopped off and climbed down.

"Get down!", he whispered as the four ducked behind a wall. They peeked over it and saw the stranger walk over to a newsstand.

"Why are we hiding?", asked Kenny.

"Someone came down from the bridge over there," said Odd.

"You think he's the one who rang the bell?", asked Kenny.

"I don't know, he might be another scavenger," said Lee.

"But he might be that freak that's messing with Clem's head!", said Odd.

"Only one way to find out. Odd and I will cover you will cover you while you two sneak up on him," said Kenny as they hopped over the wall.

Ulrich and Lee crouched down as they snuck over to the person. They got up and looked over the desk, but saw nothing.

"Where'd he go?", asked Lee.

Ulrich then turned around to find the person in the orange jacket right behind them with his weapon ready to strike.

"WHOA!", Ulrich cried out as he blocked the attack with his katana. He knocked the weapon out of the attacker's hand and held his katana against his neck.

"Nice try," the brunet said. He then heard a gasp behind him.

He turned around to find Clementine standing there.

"Clementine?", asked Lee. Ulrich lowered his weapon and walked over to Clem.

"Didn't Lee tell you to stay at the house?", he asked.

"You're not from Crawford," the attacker said as he lowered his hood, revealing that he was actually a "she" with short dirty blond hair.

Lee and Ulrich's eyes widened.

"You're a girl," said Ulrich.

"Yeah," said the girl as she took off the doctor's mask she was wearing.

"What's Crawford?", asked Lee.

"It's the worse kind of place," said the girl. She didn't notice Kenny sneaking up behind her.

"Kenny, no! It's not our guy!", Lee said. The girl ducked down and did a spin kick, knocking Kenny down and caused his gun to go off. She got ready to attack him with her ice pick.

"Whoa, easy, lady! He's with us!", Odd said as he came out of his hiding spot.

"Who are you people anyway?", asked the girl as she crossed her arms.

"I'm Ulrich. The scrawny one is Odd."

"SVELTE."

"And this is Lee, Clementine, and Kenny," Ulrich said, ignoring his friend's humorous comment.

"The name's Molly. You guys really aren't from Crawford are you?", asked the girl, now known as Molly.

"What is Crawford, anyway?", asked Odd.

"Everything beyond that barricade," Molly said as she pointed at the walkers.

"Mind telling us what the heck happened here?", asked Ulrich.

"You sure you wanna know?", asked Molly. They nodded.

"When all of this started happening, some people got together and sealed off that neighborhood. They were folks that were willing to do anything to stay alive and keep the dead out. I'd try to avoid them if I were you," Molly said.

"Why?", asked Kenny.

"Let's just say that they have a zero tolerance policy for anyone who won't or can't live by their rules," Molly said as she looked at Kenny.

"How'd you know we weren't them?", asked Kenny.

"You've got a kid with you. There are no children in Crawford. Well, not anymore," Molly said sadly as she looked at Clementine.

"What do you mean "no children"?", asked Lee.

"No children, no elderly, no one with an advanced medical condition, like heart disease, basically no one who might be a burden on the community. Crawford's all about the survival of the fittest. That's how they survived," Molly explained to the five.

"What happened to these "burdens"?", asked Lee.

"Well, you met some of them already," Molly said as she pointed at the barricade. "Anyone who got sick, anyone too old, anyone they figured wasn't strong enough. To them, those people were just mouths to feed and were a drain on their precious resources."

"How do you know all of this?", asked Lee.

"Everyone in Savannah knew about this. Everything going on in Crawford spread like a rumor, except that the rumor was true," Molly said as they walked away from the barricade.

"Clem, what're you doing here?", asked Odd as he knelt down to Clementine's level.

"Omid started getting really sick, so Christa, Ben, Carley, and Jeremy took him upstairs. I didn't wanna sit around and do nothing, I wanted to help," said Clementine.

"That's alright, but we don't need any help," said Lee.

Ulrich then asked, "You know who's been ringing the bells all over this place?"

"Yeah, that would be me," said Molly.

"I knew it! I knew it, she was the one following us!", Kenny said as he pointed at her.

"Get that finger outta my face before I take it and shove it up your butt," said Molly.

Odd giggled at her comment. He noticed Kenny glaring at him and immediately stopped giggling.

"Sorry."

"At least someone likes my sense of humor. Anyway, I'm not following you," said Molly.

"Kenny, calm down. The voice on the radio was a guy's voice," said Lee. "Yeah, but ringing those bells this morning nearly got us all killed!", Kenny exclaimed.

"I did? Well, sorry, this is how I get around. I distract the geeks by ringing the bell, then I run and get supplies," said Molly.

"Pretty good idea," said Ulrich.

"It doesn't take that much to outsmart the dead. Their brain cells are destroyed. Anyway, why are you people here?"

"We're looking for a boat," said Lee.

"Good luck with that. Anyone who had a boat took it and got away as soon as people started eating each other. Any boat that was left, Crawford took 'em and stripped them for parts. Cars too," explained Molly.

"There's gotta be something," Kenny muttered. "If there was do you think I'd still be here? I've been over every inch of this city and it's been picked clean," said Molly. "Since you're not getting on any boat, you better get outta here and go back to where you came from before-"

She was cut off when walkers started staggering around the corner.

"Before exactly that happens," she said as she turned around and ran into an alley. They followed her and saw her use a trash can as a launch pad and bounced off the wall. She used her ice pick to help her onto a balcony.

"Hey, where are you going?!", asked Lee.

"Somewhere that doesn't have flesh eating monsters after you!", Molly said as she climbed onto the balcony.

"And what about us?!", Kenny demanded.

"Please don't leave us here!", said Clementine.

Molly took one look at her face and she was a goner.

"I can't say no to a face like that. Come on!", she yelled as she knelt down and held out her hand.

"Clem, you go first! We'll follow you!", Lee said as he helped her up. Odd and Kenny climbed up next.

"Uh, Lee?"

"What is it, Ulrich?", Lee asked. His eyes widened when he saw walkers coming from both sides of the alley.

"SH**!", Lee shouted.

Ulrich looked around for an exit and found a manhole. Lee noticed this and attempted to tear it off, but failed.

Molly noticed this and tossed him her ice pick and shouted, "Use this to pry it off!"

Lee grabbed it and used it to pull the cover off.

"Quick! Down here!", Lee shouted as he climbed down the into the sewers. Ulrich looked up and shouted, "Go! We'll catch up with you! We'll be fine!"

He then climbed into the manhole and placed the cover back on.

"Now what do we do?", asked Clementine.

"We need get back to the house, where it's safe," said Kenny.

Odd sighed as he slung his crossbow over his shoulder.

"Carley and Yumi are gonna be ticked."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"OOF!", Ulrich yelled as he and Lee landed on the ground.

The brunet groaned and got up. He looked up at the manhole.

"Should we stay here and wait for them to leave?', asked Ulrich.

"No, they won't be leaving any time soon," said Lee.

"We should look around to try to find a way outta here," said Ulrich. Lee nodded in agreement.

"This shouldn't be too hard. You see, back in France, I would often go into the sewers with Jeremy, Yumi, William, Anne, Odd, Aelita, Rugby, and Tim," said Ulrich.

"Why would you go into the sewers?", asked Lee.

"Uh... we would get sick of school and would hang out in the sewers. We also used them to get to an abandoned factory, where we also hung out in," said Ulrich as they walked down some steps.

"Hey, check this out," he said as he saw something on the left. The two walked over to it and carefully stepped through it, but Lee ended up slipping and slid down the tunnel, landing on the ground.

"Nice," Ulrich said sarcastically as he landed next to him.

"Wait... you hear that?", Ulrich asked. They listened closely and heard the snarls and growls of walkers.

"Great. Walkers are down here too," Ulrich said.

"We'll have to be quite then," said Lee as they walked down the tunnel, only to find a group of walkers eating something.

"Crap!", Ulrich said as they darted into a smaller tunnel.

Lee noticed a green wheel next to them. He turned it and water started coming out of a pipe, attracting the walkers.

"This looks loose," Ulrich said as he yanked it off. They turned around to find the exit blocked by a walker.

"This way," Lee said as they crawled to the left and found a locked door.

"Can I see the ice pick?", asked Ulrich. Lee handed him the tool and he placed it in the lock and pulled it back, unlocking the door. They climbed out of the small tunnel and quickly walked over to a drainage pipe.

Lee pulled out the wheel and placed it on and turned it, causing water to come out of another drainage pipe, attracting more walkers.

"Here they come," Ulrich muttered as he drew his katana.

"Come on!", Lee said as he grabbed him by the arm and led him back into the tunnel. They waited for the walkers to pass and they climbed out. They finally got a glimpse of what the walkers were eating: it was the corpse of Chuck.

"It's Chuck...", Ulrich said in surprise. "He must have tried to hide from the walkers down here."

He noticed the bullet hole on the side of Chuck's head.

"He must have ran out of bullets and used the last one for himself," said Lee. "You deserved better, old man," he said as he took the gun. They looked to the left and saw a lone walker at the exit. The quietly crept up on it. As it turned around, Ulrich drew his katana and stabbed it in the head, killing the walker.

They quickly walked up some steps and found some sort of sign in front of them. Ulrich knocked on it lightly and heard a hollow sound.

"What the?", he asked as he grabbed the top of the sign and yanked it down, revealing some sort of secret passage.

"Nice job, Ulrich!", Lee said as they climbed into the passage, which led to a secret room.

Lee noticed a door and they walked over to it.

They opened the door, revealing four very surprised people. Lee and Ulrich's eyes widened.

"Whoops," Ulrich said, realizing their mistake.

They heard a gun click on their left and turned to find a fifth person holding a gun at them.

"Who are you?", the man asked with the gun shaking a little bit. Lee held up his hands and said, "It's alright, we don't want any trouble."

"Neither do we. Which is why you should turn around and leave right now," said the man.

"We're sorry we disturbed you. We'll just go," said Ulrich.

"You can't let them leave! They're from Crawford! If they goes back there and tell them that we're down here...", said a woman with long brown hair wearing a brown jacket.

"Are you from Crawford? Don't lie, now," said the man.

"Relax, we're not from here. "I'm from France in Europe, and Lee here's from Macon. We just got to Savannah," said Ulrich. "Besides, if we were from Crawford, we'd dart out the door right now."

"You can't trust them, Vernon. You can't let them leave," said the woman.

"What do you want me to do? Shoot these two in the head?", asked the man, now known as Vernon.

"Why not? That would be more mercy than Crawford ever showed us!", said the woman.

"We're not from Crawford, we saw what they did up there and it made me sick," said Ulrich. "We're nothing like them."

"And I don't think you are either. I think you're a good man that's trying to protect his friends," Lee said as he calmly placed his hand on Vernon's gun and took it.

"Vernon, what the h**l are you doing?!", the woman asked as she stepped in front of Vernon, shielding him.

"Relax, we're not here to hurt you guys," Lee said.

"You're really not from Crawford?", asked Vernon. "Nope, we're really not," Ulrich replied.

"Well, we are, or were. We managed to get out of there when they started to seal the place up and started weeding out the sick and the old so their perfect survivor society wouldn't be threatened. No room for weakness or vulnerability in their little master race," explained Vernon.

"Wait, you're sick?", asked Lee.

"Well, we were sick. We're all members of a cancer group that used to meet here at the hospital," said the woman.

"Wait. We're in the hospital?", asked Ulrich.

"Under it. Right now, we're in the morgue," said Vernon.

"Morgue? Isn't that the place where they put dead bodies in the hospital and examine them later?", asked Ulrich. Vernon nodded.

"Don't worry. We got rid of them a long time ago. Anyway, we're in remission, but it wasn't good enough for Crawford. They already rounded up five of us before the rest of us managed to hide from them down here," said Vernon. "How did you two find you're way down here?"

"We were looking for a boat with our group down by the river, but we were ambushed. The rest of our group managed to escape by climbing onto a balcony, but we ended up climbing into the sewers when we were cornered by walkers," said Lee.

"That sewer system you came through runs all over the entire city. It'll take you wherever you wanna go," said Vernon.

"Uh, you think you could show us the way back? I may know my way around the sewers back in France, but the sewers here are like a maze," said Ulrich.

"I'd like to help you, but two of our group members are sick and need constant care and I'm the only doctor here," said Vernon.

"Besides, why should we help you?", asked the woman.

"Look, we're sorry we scared you, but I just wanna get back to our people, back to Clementine," said Lee.

"She's your daughter?", asked Vernon.

"No, we don't know if her real parents are alive or not, but I'm doing everything I can to keep her safe," said Lee.

"You're serious about going with these guys?", asked the woman.

"It's alright, Brie," Vernon said as he turned to Lee and Ulrich.

"I had a daughter too. Lost her in the first days. I'm not gonna let that happen to someone else."

"But we need you here," said one of the members in Vernon's group.

"Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it," Vernon said as he shared a hug with Brie. He then walked to the door with Lee and Ulrich.

"So which way did you come through?", Vernon asked as they climbed out of the secret passage.

"That way," Ulrich said as he pointed straight. "We shouldn't go that way. Dead's probably wandering around back there," said Vernon. "Follow me, and be on the lookout," he said as they walked down the stairs and went through a tunnel on the left.

"If anything comes our way, I'll use my katana on 'em," Ulrich said, making Lee and Vernon chuckle a little bit as they walked through the sewers.

Meanwhile at the house...

Most of the group was downstairs, except for Christa and Omid, who were upstairs.

Anne had fallen asleep on one of the couches, Jamie and Billy were being watched by Lilly, and Yumi was pacing all over the room.

"Yumi, would you calm down?", asked William.

"How can I calm down when Ulrich, Lee, Odd, and Kenny haven't come back yet?", asked Yumi.

"I'm worried too, but all we can do right now is wait," said Carley.

"I know, but sometimes, waiting isn't good enough," said Yumi. She stopped talking when she noticed the Rugby twins walk over to the couch Anne was sleeping on and started pushing it towards the wall.

"What are you two doing now?", asked Aelita.

"We're gonna pull a wake up prank on Anne," said Tim.

"Remember the last few times you pulled wake up pranks on her?", asked Carley.

The twins looked up in thought.

"There was that one time you yanked the covers out from under her, and Tim ended up with a black eye," said Ben.

"And there was that time when you put ice down her shirt, and Rugby nearly got a fist in the face," said Jeremy.

"And the time when you yanked the chairs out from under her at the St. Johns and she chased you around the farm for nearly ten minutes," said Lilly.

Rugby shrugged and said, "I don't care. As long as we have some fun with her."

The twins looked at each other and said, "One, two, three!"

They lifted the couch up and tipped it forward, sending Anne face first into the wall.

"OW!", Anne shouted. The twins burst out laughing, along with a few other members in the group.

"What the h**l is wrong with you two?!", Anne yelled, clutching her head. This made the entire group laugh.

"What's going on?"

They all stopped laughing when they heard the voice. They turned around to find Kenny, Molly, Odd, and Clementine standing in the doorway.

"You're back!", Jamie said happily as she and Billy hugged Odd.

"Hey you two!" he said as he hugged them back.

"Who's she?", Aelita asked, pointed at Molly.

"This is Molly. She saved us when we were cornered by walkers," said Kenny.

"Wait. Where's Lee and Ulrich?", asked Yumi.

"Why aren't they with you?", asked Carley.

Odd, Kenny, and Molly exchanged nervous looks before Odd chuckled nervously and said, "Yeah, about that... when we were cornered in an alley, there were walkers coming from both sides... and Lee and Ulrich... kinda climbed into the sewers and told us that they'd catch up with us before we got away."

**"WHAT?!"**


	8. Chapter 8 Crawford

Chapter 8

"Is the coast clear?"

"Yeah. No sign of the walkers."

The trio walked down the sidewalk as they got closer to the house.

"This is where you've been stayin' at?", asked Vernon as he looked up at the house.

"Yep. It's pretty stable," said Ulrich.

They opened the gate and walked into the backyard. As they entered the yard, they heard a lot of crashing and yelling coming from inside the house.

"What the h**l?", Lee asked as they opened the door and walked inside.

What they saw surprised them a bit.

Everyone except for Yumi and Odd were standing in the corners of the living room. Jamie and Billy hid behind Anne, Carley, and Molly and were shivering in fear as they watched the scene.

As for Yumi and Odd, they were in the center of the room. Yumi was holding Odd by the front of his shirt and was shaking the living daylights out of him. Odd had a comical blank eyed expression on his face as she shook him.

"WHAT THE H**L DO YOU MEAN "THEY CLIMBED INTO THE SEWERS"?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH DANGER THEY COULD BE IN RIGHT NOW?!", Yumi yelled as she shook Odd even more. The rest of the occupants in the room backed away a few more feet in hopes of escaping Yumi's wrath.

"Whoa, Yumi! Chill out! We're alright!", Ulrich said.

Yumi immediately stopped shaking Odd and looked at Ulrich. She gasped.

"Guys! You're alright!", she exclaimed happily as she let go of a half-conscious Odd, who landed on the floor with a thud.

"Who's the old guy?", asked William.

"This here is Vernon. He's a doctor and he helped us find our way through the sewers," said Lee.

"A doctor?!", asked Christa. "Can you help us? Omid's hurt his leg and it might have gotten infected."

"I'll see what I can do. Take me to him," Vernon said as he followed Christa upstairs.

Molly walked over to Lee and said, "I think you have something that belongs to me?"

"Hm? Oh," Lee said as he handed her the ice pick.

"By the way, is Clementine here?", he asked. "Yeah, I brought her, Kenny, and Odd back here in one piece, but I think she hid somewhere when Yumi went crazy," said Molly.

Lee immediately started looking around the house for Clem.

Carley noticed this and asked, "Lee, what's wrong?"

"Have you seen Clementine?"

"No. Want some help looking for her?"

"Yeah. Thanks," said Lee. They walked over to the stairs to find Jeremy sitting on them.

"Hey, Jer," said Lee.

Jeremy looked up at them and said, "Hey."

"Have you seen Clem?", asked Lee.

"No, I thought she was with you in the living room. You need some help?"

"Yes. Thank you, Jeremy," said Carley. The trio walked into the living room to find Kenny, Ben, and Patrick in there. Kenny was drinking a bottle of whiskey.

"Kenny?", asked Lee.

"Oh hey. You made it back," Kenny said with a hint of drunkenness in his voice.

"Where'd you get the bottle?", asked Jeremy.

Kenny shrugged. "Fooouund it."

"Kenny, give me the bottle," Lee said as he reached for it, but Kenny held it closer to him.

"I tried that already. It's not gonna work," said Patrick.

Kenny offered the bottle to Ben. He was about to take it, but he saw the look Lee, Carley, and Jeremy were giving him, so he just shook his head and sat back down.

"Have either of you two seen Clementine?", asked Carley.

"Nope. Gotta be around here somewhere," Kenny said as he drank more whiskey.

"I'd try looking out in the backyard. She might be playing out there," said Ben. As soon as he said that, the three darted outside.

"Clementine?!", Lee yelled.

There was some banging coming from the shed. They walked over to the shed and Lee and Carley got ready to open the doors.

Just as they were about to open them, the doors slammed open, knocking Lee, Carley, and Jeremy to the ground.

"Lee!"

The three got up to find Clementine in the shed. She ran over and hugged Lee and Carley.

"Hey girl!", Lee said playfully.

"Come look! Look what I found!", she said as she walked over to the shed. Lee opened the doors, revealing a boat that was large enough for everyone that was in the house to fit in.

"Holy sh**," said Lee.

"Swear," Clementine said, making Carley and Jeremy chuckle.

They turned around to find Kenny standing there. When he saw the boat, he smiled and dropped the whiskey bottle.

"I don't believe it. There was a boat here the entire time! Good job you guys!", said Kenny.

"Thank Clementine. She's the one who found it first," said Jeremy as they headed back inside.

After they told everyone about the good news, Ben and Kenny went to examine the boat. Everyone except Omid waited in the living room.

Soon, Ben and Kenny came back in.

"Well?", asked William.

"Which do you want first? The good news or the bad news?", asked Kenny.

"Let's get the bad news outta the way first," said Lilly.

"The bad news is that she's not taking us anywhere the shape she's in. Gas tank's empty and the battery's dead, but the good news is that's all she's gonna need to get up and running."

"Where are we supposed to get gas and a battery?", asked Anne.

"Sounds like Crawford is the one place that has everything," said Lee.

"Are you crazy?! You saw what they did there!", said Odd.

"We have to try. If there are people who are still alive and still have supplies, what harm can it do?", Christa asked as she got up.

"Trust me. You don't know these people. I do. If you show up with a wounded man, you might as well put a noose around his neck. They don't exactly welcome children, either," said Vernon.

"Why?", asked Aelita.

"Crawford's all about survival of the fittest, so anyone who too young, too old, or too sick is not welcome there and if they find out, they'll kick them out or worse," said Molly. "I don't think we have any other choice."

"And just how exactly do you figure we do this?", asked Kenny.

"I say we sneak in," said Ulrich.

"Now THAT'S a plan! I'm an expert at sneaking around!", said Odd.

"But how are we gonna sneak in?", asked Yumi.

"I know the sewer system that runs beneath Crawford. We might be able to sneak in like that," said Vernon. "We sneak in, grab what we need, and get outta there."

"That's not a bad idea," said Molly.

"Let's do this," said Lee.

"I'll go let my group know. I'll be back before dark," said Vernon as he walked out of the house.

"Who's gonna stay and watch Omid?", asked Christa.

"I'll stay," said Patrick.

"Me too," said Tim.

"So will I," said Rugby.

"I don't wanna run into the bad people there," said Billy. Jamie nodded.

"Don't worry. We'll keep an eye on 'em," Patrick said.

"Then it's settled," said Lee.

"Is Crawford gonna be dangerous?", Clementine asked.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dangerous," said Lee.

"I don't want anyone else to die," said Clem.

"Neither do I, but we're gonna have to take that kinda risk," said Lee.

"I guess I should go get ready," said Clementine.

"Wait. What?", Aelita asked as she walked over to them.

"You said you need all of us to do this," said Clementine.

"Yeah, but you heard what Molly said. It's dangerous, especially for children," said Aelita.

"But Lee said that I should always stick close to him. Can't I come with you guys?"

Lee sighed. "Alright, you can come, but remember, stick close to me no matter what," he said. Clementine nodded.

Later...

It was nighttime when most of the group walked out of the house.

Vernon and Brie walked through the gates.

"Who's she?", Odd asked. "This is Brie. She can help us out," said Vernon.

"How?", asked Lee.

"I was a student at the school where Crawford keeps their supplies. I know the layout," Brie explained.

"With her help, we'll be able to get in and out faster," said Vernon.

"What're we waiting for? Let's get moving," Molly said as she threw her hood up. Ben walked over to Lee and handed him a hatchet.

"Let's go," he said as he took the axe and the group opened the gate and left the house.

Jeremy peeked around the corner.

"No sign of walkers."

"Good. Come on," Vernon said as they walked over to a manhole.

"Now this looks familiar," said Yumi before they climbed in one at a time.

Several minutes later...

"I can't believe we're going through the sewers...", Lilly muttered as they walked through the sewer tunnels.

"Hey, back in France, we would do this all the time," said Odd.

"Why would you go into the sewers, anyway?", asked Carley.

"We would hang out there and ride our skateboards through it. We'd also use the sewers to get to the abandoned factory so we could check the place out," said Ulrich.

"Guys, we're here," Vernon said as they looked up at a ladder.

"We're right under Crawford," he said.

"OK people, this is it. Remember the plan. We stay quiet and we stay together," said Lee. "We get in there, get what we need, and get the h**l out before anyone knows that we're there. Got it?"

Everyone nodded.

Lee climbed up the ladder first before they followed him. They quickly got out and hid behind some bushes.

"So this is Crawford, huh?", asked Jeremy.

"Where is everybody? There should be guards patrolling this place," said Vernon.

"I think I see one over there," said Christa. Sure enough, someone was walking in front of the school doors.

"Kenny, William, and I will try to sneak up on him and take him out. You guys wait for our signal," said Lee. Kenny got his rifle ready and William got his switchblade out.

The three crawled over to the guard. Lee got the hatchet ready as the guard turned around.

"What the f**k?!"

The guard turned out to be a walker. It lunged at Lee, but he slammed the hatchet into it and kicked it away.

"What the h**l is a walker doing inside Crawford?!", asked William. Suddenly, more walkers started coming from behind bushes and buildings.

"Everyone get inside NOW!", Lee shouted as the group got up and darted to the doors. Once everyone was in, Lee and Kenny shut the doors. They ran up some stairs and ran through another set of doors.

"You think they saw us?", asked Yumi.

"I don't know," said Lee, scaring Clementine a little. Ben paced back and forth his hands behind his head.

"What happened here? I thought you said this place was secure," said Christa.

"What always happens, I guess. In the end, the dead always get their way," Molly said as she looked at them.

"Oh man, we are so screwed," Ben muttered.

"No, this is good," said Vernon. "How exactly is this good?", asked Anne as she took off her hat.

"Before, everyone in Crawford were smart and had guns. Now they're dumb and don't," Vernon explained.

"Come on, I think I know which way to go to," Brie said as they followed her down a hall. Jeremy stopped when he heard moans coming from behind a boarded up door. He nervously backed away from it.

"Just keep moving," Molly told the nervous boy as they reached a door.

They walked into the room, revealing it to be some sort of classroom. Lee walked over to a door that said 'ARMORY' and tried to open it, but it was locked.

Kenny examined a chalkboard and said, "Looks like they were using this room as some sort of command center."

"OK, so where do we start looking?", asked Molly.

Brie looked at a map on the wall.

"Any ideas about where we could find the battery?", asked Aelita.

"Maybe at the auto shop. There should be one there," said Vernon.

"What about fuel?", asked Ulrich.

"There's a shed over by the playground there, so if they were storing fuel, that's where'd they keep it," said Brie.

"What about medicine?", asked Christa.

"Right here at the nurse's office. They were using it as a medical station," Molly said as she pointed at it on the map.

"OK, I'll run to the maintenance shed to get the fuel," said Kenny.

"I'll go too," said Brie.

"Ben, Lilly, William, see if you can use any tools to get that armory door open. We might need to shoot our way outta here if we have to," said Kenny.

"I'll go get the medicine," said Christa. "Me too," said Aelita. "I'll come with ya. I know what to take," said Vernon.

"OK, then that leaves me to go get the battery," said Lee.

"I'll go with you," said Carley. "Me too. We'll watch your back," said Molly.

"I can help you find the right one for the boat," said Jeremy. "And I can grab it if it's in a tight space," Odd said.

"Hey, what about me?", Anne asked. "I can help you find it quicker."

"You can come with us," said Lee. "Clementine, you can stay here and watch over the command center with Ulrich and Yumi."

"OK," said the girl.

"Let's go," Lee said as his group walked out of the classroom. On the lockers, they found a sign that said 'PRINCIPLES OF CRAWFORD'. They walked over to it and read it.

When Anne looked at the line that said 'Children under 14 not admitted without authorization', she immediately paled.

Carley noticed this and asked, "Hey Anne, what's wrong?"

"It says that children under 14 are not admitted," Anne said.

"And?"

"... I'm 13."

"Oh."

Jeremy looked at another poster on the left of the sign that showed a picture of a man with the words "C. Oberson- Crawford Leader" above it.

"This must be the leader," he said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Well, if I ever see him, I'm gonna give him an arrow in the butt," said Odd.

"The alley way to the motor shop is this way. Come on," Molly said as she ran through a door.

"Wait up!", Odd said as they followed her.

"Hey, where'd she go?", asked Anne. Molly was nowhere in sight.

They walked around a corner and found a shed with a hole in the roof.

"The auto shop must be on the other side of the fence," said Carley.

"Looks like we're gonna have to jump over it," said Lee.

"You're kidding me, right?", asked Jeremy.

"Nope," Lee said as they walked into the shed. Lee used the shelves to climb through the hole and jumped over the fence.

"Jump! I'll catch you!", Lee shouted. Carley climbed up next and jumped off, landing in Lee's arms.

"Relax, I do stuff like this all the time!", Odd said as he jumped off the roof and landed on his feet right in front of Carley and Lee, surprising them a bit.

"Your turn, Einstein," Odd called up to the blonde genius. Jeremy gulped.

"Here goes!", he said as he jumped off the roof. Odd and Lee caught him.

"You're up, Anne," Carley said, but Anne just stood there.

"What's wrong? You scared?", Odd asked with a teasing tone.

"Shut up, Odd," said Anne. "Back in you-know-where, jumping off of high places is a piece of cake, but now..."

"You-know-where?", asked Lee. Odd and Jeremy looked up nervously at Anne as she mentally smacked herself for saying that.

"Don't worry, we'll all catch you!", said Carley.

"On three. One... two... three!", Jeremy shouted. Anne jumped off the roof and landed in their arms.

"See? That wasn't so bad now, was it?", Lee asked as they set her down.

"I guess. Just be glad Ulrich didn't come with us. He has a bad case of vertigo," Anne said as she adjusted her hat.

Suddenly, a walker fell off a building and landed in front of them. Lee walked over to examine it, but they heard a familiar voice shout, "Leave him!"

They turned around just in time to see Molly jump off a roof.

"He's mine," she said as she got her ice pick out.

"Nice to see you too," Odd said as she passed by them.

"Mind telling us why you were up there?", asked Carley. She ignored her question and repeatedly kicked and stabbed the walker.

"MOLLY!", Lee shouted, making her stop.

"What?!", asked Molly.

"Calm down! What's wrong with you?", asked Jeremy.

"What's the matter? You never seen someone kill a geek before?", asked Molly as she stabbed the walker again.

"Well, not like THAT," said Odd.

After Molly kicked the walker one last time, she looked at the group and asked, "Have you found us a way in?"

"Yeah, but I think the garage door's jammed," said Lee.

"Not a problem. Look what I found," Molly said as she showed them some type of tool.

"Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about!", Odd said as Lee took it and placed it under the garage door. He spun the lever on the side and the door went up.

Suddenly, some walkers pushed an old fence down.

"Crap! Move it!", Anne shouted as they crouched down and crawled into the auto shop. Fortunately, the walkers passed by them.

"You guys look around for the battery. I'll keep an eye on the door," said Molly.

Anne opened up a hood on a truck and looked at the engine.

"No battery in here," she said as she closed the hood.

Carley glanced up at a car on a lift. "Maybe that one has a battery. But how are we gonna get it down?", the former reporter asked.

Jeremy looked at a panel on the wall and saw a hose attached to it.

"No way we can pry that off with our hands," he said. Lee walked over to Molly and asked, "Can I borrow your ice pick?"

"I don't know. Hilda and I have been through a lot together," Molly said, earning looks of confusion from the group.

"Hilda?", asked Odd.

"Yeah. It sounds better than 'ice pick', don't ya think?", asked Molly as she handed the tool to Lee. He walked over to the hose and sliced it off. The ramp that held the car started to slowly desend, but landed on the floor suddenly, causing the alarm to go off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!", Lee shouted. "That's probably not good!", Molly said. "Quick, check to see if it has a battery!"

Lee and Carley lifted the hood up and found a battery in it.

"Finally!", said Carley. Lee quickly detached the terminals and pulled the battery out.

"Put it in my bag. I'll carry it!", Molly said as Lee placed the battery in her backpack.

Walkers started to crawl through the opening under the garage door.

"On the truck!", Jeremy shouted as they climbed onto the semi truck. The walkers started shaking it.

"OK, now what?!", Lee asked as they tried to keep their balance.

Molly looked up. "Skylight! You're gonna have to shoot it out!"

Carley quickly pulled out her gun and shot it, shattering the glass. Molly jumped up and pulled them up one at a time.

"OK, now we're on a roof," Lee muttered.

"Come on," Molly said as she ran and jumped onto the school roof with the help of "Hilda".

"Hey, what are you, chicken? Jump!", Molly told them.

"Chicken?", asked Lee. "Well, now that you mention it...", he said as he looked over the edge. He ran and jumped off the ledge. Molly caught him and pulled him up.

Carley jumped across and was caught by Lee. Odd used his crossbow to latch onto the ledge like Molly did with Hilda as he jumped across the alleyway. Anne went next and had no problem, but when Jeremy jumped across and landed on the ledge, he lost his footing and nearly fell off, but Anne quickly grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back up.

They then climbed through a hole in the roof. Anne climbed off last, but ended up landing on Odd and Jeremy.

"OOF!"

"Come on, Molly," Lee called up to the girl, who was still on the roof. "Later. There's something I gotta do first," she said.

"What?! But you have the battery!", Jeremy said as he got back up.

"I think I'll hold onto it, make sure you don't leave without me. Catch you later!", Molly said as she ran off.

Suddenly, Brie and Kenny came barging through the doors with a few gallons of gas.

"Little help here?!", Kenny shouted as Lee, Carley, and Jeremy ran over and tried to keep the door shut as walkers started coming after them. A walkers head got stuck in between the doors. Lee quickly shot it and they slammed the doors shut.

Jeremy noticed the hatchet in front of him and quickly grabbed it and stuck it in between the handle bars.

"You think it'll hold?", asked Carley. "It'd better," said Kenny.

"Hey, you got the fuel!", Odd said as he looked down at the gallons of gas.

"Let's not go high-fiving each other just yet. Give us a hand with these, will ya?", Kenny asked. Odd nodded and picked up a gallon and they walked back to the classroom.

"You're back!", Clementine said happily as she ran over to them.

"Yep, and we made back pretty good too. How're they doing with that door?", asked Kenny.

"Not so good," said Ben.

Kenny sighed. "Here. Lemme give you a hand with that," he said as he walked over to the door.

"You guys get that battery, yet?", he asked. "Yeah. Molly has it. She should be back soon," said Carley.

"I'm gonna go see if Vernon and Christa need some help," said Lee.

"I'll come with you," said William as the two walked out of the classroom and walked down the hall to see several walkers in front of the nurse's office. They ducked behind a desk.

"Sh**, Vernon, Aelita, and Christa must be trapped in there," Lee said as he got his gun out and fired at a walker. He quickly shot the rest in the head before the two got up and entered the office to find Christa with her gun ready. She lowered it once she realized it was only them.

"What happened?", asked William. "They wandered in here. They must have heard us. This entire place is infected! They're everywhere!", Christa said.

"Relax, Lee took care of them," said William. "By the way, you guys find the meds we need?"

"That's our other problem," Vernon said as he looked at a cabinet.

"They must have taken all their medicine and locked it up tight in that safe. If we had the combination, we'd be able to get out a lot quicker," Aelita said.

William sighed and looked at a desk. "What's this?," he asked himself as he picked up a file off the desk. He opened it and found some paperwork and a video cassette in it.

"'Anna Corea'. Hm, guess she must have been a patient here," William muttered as he picked up the video cassette.

"I think we just got lucky," he said with a smile as he walked over to a video camera set up in the room with it. He inserted it and pressed PLAY.

"Hey guys, check this out," William told the other three as they gathered around it and looked at the screen.

A woman was sitting on a bed as a doctor walked over to her. They listened closely as the doctor told her that she was pregnant. The woman begged him not to tell, but the man simply said that he had no choice.

William took it out as the clip ended.

"What kind of place was this?!", asked Aelita.

"Like Molly said: The worst kind," Lee replied.

"Maybe there's another tape. We might be able to figure out the combination if we keep watching them," William suggested.

"Good idea. I recognize that guy in the video as one of the walkers outside by the auto shop. You stay here and I'll see if he's got anything on him," Lee said as he walked out of the office.

Several minutes later, he came back holding two tapes.

"I found two more," said Lee. "Put it in," said Christa. Lee nodded and placed one of the tapes into the video camera and they gathered around the screen.

On the screen, it showed the woman and the doctor talking again. The doctor said that she could terminate the pregnancy or leave Crawford. She begged him to help her, but he wouldn't. As the doctor walked over to the safe and locked it, the woman darted up, grabbed a knife, and stabbed him. She grabbed his gun and ran out of the office.

"I think we know what happened to Crawford," Lee said as he took out the tape. "I saw the combination in the video. Now we'll be able to get into the safe," said Aelita.

Suddenly, Christa started crying.

"Hey, you OK, Christa?", asked William.

"It's nothing. It's just... hard to watch. Don't worry, I'm fine," Christa said.

"Alright then, let's go get those meds and get the h**l outta here," said William. Aelita walked over to the cabinet and punched the code in, opening it.

"It's open!", she said, looking over her shoulder.

Vernon walked over to it and started taking medicine out.

"OK, I think we got enough," said Vernon. "I found a third tape in that locker outside," said Lee.

"Well, don't take to long. Christa and I will be back in the classroom," Vernon said as he and Christa left. Lee inserted the tape and he, William, and Aelita gathered around it.

"Hey wait a sec... is that Molly?!", William shouted.

"Shh!", Lee and Aelita hissed as they watched Molly talk to the doctor. The doctor said that he couldn't give her more meds. Molly said that they had a deal and that her sister needed the medicine and angrily left the room with some medicine.

Lee took the tape out as Aelita and William stared at the camera in shock.

"So that's why Molly knew so much about Crawford," Aelita said as the trio left the room walked into the hallway. Suddenly, Molly jumped down from the hole in the ceiling.

"GAH! You scared the crap outta me!", William shouted.

"Where have you been?", asked Lee.

"Sightseeing," was Molly's response.

"I'll take that battery now," said Lee. "Oh yeah... about that...", Molly said nervously, making Lee's eyes widen. She then smiled.

"I'm just kidding! Here ya go," she said as she took the battery out and handed it to him. They noticed that she was holding something else.

"What's that?", asked Aelita

"Nothing," said Molly.

"Molly, you can quit the act now. We know you're from Crawford," said William.

"Who told you that?", she asked. "We saw you on a video tape in the nurse's office. Why'd you lie to us?", asked Lee.

"I said there were stories about Crawford. I never said that that's how I knew about it. I never lied to you guys, and even if I did, so what? I don't owe you anything," said Molly.

"You saved most of our group's lives, but you can't tell the truth?", Lee said as he crossed his arms. Molly sighed.

"I used to live here with my sister. She was 14 years old," said Molly. "When the dead started walking around and Crawford shut itself in, it seemed like a pretty good deal at first. We were safe and we had everything we needed to survive, but then the rules started coming down. My sister was diabetic, and by Crawford's rule, she wasn't allowed. I kept it a secret and kept her safe, but in the end, I couldn't protect her. That's when I left. Crawford always talked about their great system and how it was better than becoming one of those geeks out there, but I'd saw what they'd already become. I just wish I figured it out before it was too late. Before they came and took my sister away from me."

She wiped away a few tears as Lee, William, and Aelita gave her sympathetic looks.

"This is all I have left of her," she said as she showed them what she had in her hands. It was a picture of a girl, who they presumed to be Molly's sister.

Aelita sighed. "I understand. I know what it feels like to have someone you love ripped away from you," the rosette said.

"What do you mean?", asked Molly.

"Aelita, I don't think-", William began to say, but decided to let her talk once he saw the look on her face.

"Don't tell the others this, but this happened way before the walkers. When I was four, I was playing out in the snow while my parents watched me. Suddenly, these guys that worked for my dad's enemies came out of nowhere and grabbed my mom and threw her into the back of a van. As they drove away, I tried to chase after them, but the van was just too fast," Aelita said as tears started coming out of her eyes.

"I've haven't seen my mother since. All that I have left of her is a doll she gave me," she said. The three gave her looks of sympathy.

Suddenly, a bell rang in the distance.

"I think that's our cue to go," Molly said as they walked through the hall. They heard a door creak open and Ben jumped around the corner with a hatchet in his hand, scaring them.

"Oh, it's just you guys," he said as he lowered the hatchet.

"Uh, Ben? Where'd you get that?", asked Lee. "I found it stuck between a door handle at the end of the hallway," Ben said simply.

"Oh no...", Lee said once he realized what he was talking about. Suddenly, walkers came bursting out of the doors. Molly quickly stabbed them with the ice pick, but one grabbed her.

"Lee! Shoot it!", Molly shouted. There was a gunshot and the walker fell down, dead.

"Thanks!"

"It wasn't me!", Lee said. They turned to find that Clementine was the one that shot it.

"Good going kid, nice shot!", Molly said impressed.

"Thanks," Clementine said as she lowered her gun. More walkers started coming through the doors.

"Quick, in the classroom!", Aelita shouted as they darted into the room.

"What's going on?!", asked Yumi.

"They're coming," said Lee.

"How do we get outta here?", asked Brie. "Through the armory, if we can just open that freakin' door!", said Ulrich.

"COME ON!", Kenny shouted as he rammed his shoulder into the door.

"This is my fault... it's all my fault!", Ben exclaimed.

"What're you babbling about?", asked Jeremy.

"Ben, we talked about this," Lee said sternly. "No, wait, I wanna know what he means by that," said Christa.

"Kenny, I'm so sorry," said Ben. "This ain't the best time kid!", Kenny said as he rammed himself into the door.

"It's been me all along. I've been putting us all in danger. Katjaa and Duck... it was all me!", Ben said. At the mention of his wife and son's name, Kenny kicked the door open.

"Wait, what're you saying?", asked Kenny.

"I was the one who made the deal with the bandits. I was the one giving them supplies. I thought I could keep them off our backs if I did. But when I got discovered, that's when the bandits attacked us. And that's when Duck..."

Kenny lunged at him, but Lee, Vernon, Lilly, and Ulrich held him back.

"Kenny, you can kick his a** some other time!", Ulrich said.

"YOU'RE F**KING DEAD! YOU HEAR ME?! **DEAD!**", Kenny shouted at the top of his lungs. "My wife and son are dead cause of you!"

"And you caused me to get so paranoid that I nearly shot Carley!", Lilly said angrily as she struggled to keep Kenny from beating Ben up.

"If this a**hole thinks he's getting on my boat after what he did, he's out of his f**king mind!", Kenny shouted.

"We'll sort this out later after we get outta here!", said Jeremy.

"No way Jer! We're leaving him here!"

"I vote we leave him. I'm sorry Ben, I know you mean well, but I want to get back to Omid and you're putting that at risk," said Christa.

"Don't I get to vote?", asked Clementine,

"Of course you do," said Carley.

"Ben's nice. He's my friend, and we don't leave friends behind. That's my vote," the little girl said. They stared at her in surprise.

"On second thought, I say we let him come with us," Christa said.

"Me too. I vote Ben stays with us," Lee said.

"What about the rest of us? Don't we get a say in-"

Brie was cut off when a walker arm burst through the glass on the door and held her down. She screamed as more walkers came through the door and bit into her shoulder, leg, and stomach.

"BRIE! NO!", Vernon shouted as he watched helplessly as his friend was being eaten.

"We need to get out NOW!", Jeremy shouted as he grabbed Vernon by the arm.

"Vernon, come on!", he said as he and the others ran through the armory door, which led into a bell tower.

Lee tried to shut the door, but it wouldn't close.

"The lock's busted!", he said as he backed away from the door.

"That's just great. We gotta move!", Jeremy shouted as they ran down the stairs. Carley ran to a door and opened it, revealing several walkers looking at them.

"F*****K!", Kenny shouted as the shorter woman slammed the door shut.

"That door's not gonna hold. Quick, get upstairs!", Lee yelled as they ran back up the stairs. Kenny quickly grabbed a rifle and tossed it to Lee before running back upstairs. Lee shot at a few before turning around to find more walkers behind him. Suddenly, two fell down, dead. He looked up to find that it was Carley who shot them.

"HURRY!", she shouted. Lee got out the hatchet and knocked several walkers out of the way as he made his way towards the top of the bell tower, where the others were waiting.

Yumi peeked out of a window to find a ladder under it. "We'll be able to get out this way!", she said.

"You guys didn't come into town by the railroad, did ya?", asked Vernon as he looked out the window.

"Yeah. Why?", asked William. "Never mind. Let's go!", Vernon said as he, Molly, Lilly, Carley, Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, William, Kenny, Clementine, and Christa climbed out the window. Suddenly, the bell rang loudly, forcing Lee, Ben, Jeremy, Odd, and Anne to cover their ears. As the bell rang, a walker that hung from it by it's neck grabbed Ben.

Jeremy quickly uncovered his ears and shot at it, forcing to let Ben go, but as it fell, Ben fell over the edge with it. Lee and Anne quickly grabbed his arms.

"Hold on! We got you!", Anne shouted.

"Climb up!", shouted Lee. "There's no time! You have to go!", Ben said. "Just let me go and get Clem and the others to safety!"

Lee and Anne quickly pulled him up, much to Ben's surprise.

"Why?"

"Simple. You're our friend, and we don't leave friend's to die," said Anne.

Odd peeked over the edge and said, "That walker looked like the guy in that picture."

"He must have gotten fed up with all of this and hung himself," said Jeremy.

Odd sighed. "And I was so looking forward to giving him an arrow in the butt."

"GUYS! MOVE IT!", they heard Kenny shout. They quickly dashed to the window and climbed out.

Later...

They had made it safely back to the house. As soon as they got inside, they dashed upstairs to find that Omid wasn't moving.

"Omid... I never should have left you!", Christa said as she started crying.

Jamie and Billy hid behind Odd and Anne, just incase.

Suddenly, Omid gasped and sat up. Lee quickly pulled Christa back.

Omid smiled and said, "Hey. Back already?"

They smiled and sighed in relief as Christa hugged her boyfriend. Vernon gave him some medicine and turned to the group.

"I'll stay here for a few more hours to check on him. Let me know if you need anything," he said.

As the Lyoko Warriors walked out of the room, Lee and Carley stepped in front of them.

"What's wrong?", asked Jeremy.

"Is there something you're not telling us?", asked Carley.

"What are you talking about?", asked Odd.

"Well, you guys always get into a group huddle and look to see if we're not watching before you talk," said Carley.

"And back in Crawford, when Anne said you-know-where, Odd and Jeremy immediately got nervous, like she almost gave away a secret," said Lee.

Jeremy sighed. "Guess we have no choice. Lee, get everyone in the living room, this is something that everyone in the group needs to know," he said.

"Einstein, are you nuts?!", asked Rugby.

"No, they need to know," Jeremy said.

Several minutes later, everyone in the group, except for Vernon, was in the living room.

"Hey, where's Vernon?", asked Yumi.

"He went back to his group," Lee said quickly. She shrugged and sat down.

"OK, where should we start?", Jeremy asked himself before looking at the group.

"About three years ago, I went to an abandoned factory in order to find scrap metal to build robots for a science project. But instead, I found an elevator that led to a hidden supercomputer under the factory," he said. "I turned it on, went to the supercomputer, and saw something I'd never thought I'd see. I found a girl with pink hair inside it."

"Are you talking about Aelita? How could she be stuck in a computer?", asked Kenny.

"You see, my father used to work for a top secret project called Project Carthage. It was created to stop enemy communication, but they shut it down. My father tried to destroy it, but his enemies wanted it for their own evil purposes, so they kidnapped my mother in an attempt to make him surrender. After my mother was taken away, we moved to a house called the Hermitage. He then started creating Lyoko, a virtual world inside the supercomputer," said Aelita.

"Lyoko?", asked Carley.

"When my father finished it, the men in black found out and tried to arrest us, but we managed to escape. He led me through the sewers to an abandoned factory. After he typed something into the computer, he led me down into another room that had three scanners in it. We stepped into them and were virtualized into Lyoko," said Aelita.

"Whoa, hold up! You were transported into a virtual world by a computer?!", asked Omid. Aelita nodded.

"When we got to Lyoko, Dad told me that XANA, an AI he created, had turned rogue and wanted to destroy us, so I hid in a tower and fell asleep. About 10 years later, Jeremy found the supercomputer and woke me up," she said.

"And here's when I come into the picture!", said Odd, earning a whack on the back of the head from Ulrich and Yumi.

"I met Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd, who soon found out about the supercomputer. They wanted to help fight XANA while I tried to figure out a way to bring Aelita back to Earth, so I let them join," said Jeremy.

"We had to deal with attacks like possessed rats, toxic fogs, music that puts you into a coma, evil copies of us, and giant teddy bears," said Ulrich.

Molly snickered. "Giant teddy bears?"

"Hey, you have no idea how close I was to getting squashed by it!", said Ulrich. "Anyway, we managed to finally bring Aelita back to Earth. But XANA stole a piece of her memory, so she was still connected to Lyoko, and if we destoryed XANA, Aelita would die."

"XANA did everything he could to steal the rest of Aelita's memory so he could escape Lyoko, like possessing humans to send her to Lyoko and have a monster called the Scyphozoa drain her memories. n the end, he succeded, but Aelita's dad appeared outta nowhere and saved her life by giving her memories back, cutting off her connection to Lyoko," said Jeremy.

"Soon, William discovered our secret and we let him into our group, but since XANA had more power, he used the Scyphozoa to make William his slave," said Yumi.

"William would attack us and would try to throw Aelita into the Digital Sea," said Ulrich.

"What's the Digital Sea?", asked Clementine. "It's kinda like a sea full of data, and if someone falls in, they get deleted and can never return to Earth," said Jeremy, making Clementine gasp.

"It took a while, but we managed to finally free William from XANA's control," said Aelita. "A little bit after that, Anne, Rugby, and Tim came to Kadic Academy."

"We followed them to the factory after I saw them sneaking out whiile I was staying up late," said Anne. "They let us into the group after we saved Aelita from some of XANA's monsters."

"How exactly do you fight XANA?", asked Lilly.

"Well, Jeremy sits at the supercomputer and types in the virtualization process while we step into these things called scanners. We then get virtualized and fight XANA's monsters while we try to get to towers, which are the source of XANA's attacks. Aelita then steps into the tower and deactivates it, and if anyone follows us to the factory, we simply use the Return to the Past program to make them forget, but when we left France, XANA must have tampered with it so we can't use it," said William.

"There's also something else you should know," said Jeremy.

"What is it?", asked Lee.

"You see, XANA once launched this attack by possessing Kiwi, Odd's dog. Anyone that Kiwi bit would be turned into a zombie. We managed to stop him just in time before everyone in the school was a zombie," he said. "I think he's done something similar to this."

"Wait, hold on a sec. Are you saying that this XANA is the one responsible for the walkers?", asked Kenny.

"We don't know that yet," Jeremy replied.

"So for three years, you've been fighting against a virus, but why haven't you told anyone else this?", asked Ben.

"We didn't tell anyone because we were afraid that they'd tell the police and that Aelita's father's enemies would come take her away and use the supercomputer for their own purposes," said Ulrich.

"Don't worry, you're secret's safe with us," said Lee.

"Thanks Lee," said Aelita.

Later...

"JEREMY!"

"WHA!", the blonde genius shouted as he rolled off the couch. He had fallen asleep a little bit after they told them about Lyoko. He looked up to see that Carley was standing in front of him.

"What is it?", he asked.

"Clementine's missing!", she said.

"WHAT?! Are you sure she's not hiding around the house?"

"Yes, I'm sure! Come on, we need your help!", Carley said as she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him outside to find the others outside with Lee.

"Lee, what the heck are you doing out here?", asked Ulrich.

Carley noticed something on his arm and asked, "Lee, who's blood is that?"

He sighed. Lee didn't want to lie to them, especially Carley, so he turned around to face them.

"It's mine," he said as he showed them his right arm. Just above his wrist was a bite mark.

They gasped.

"No...", Jeremy said softly.

"I got jumped by a walker after I found Clem's hat and radio," he said.

"Now what do we do?", asked Omid.

"I say we go look for her. I heard Vernon talking to Lee about taking her," said Molly.

"They might be at the morgue," said Ulrich.

"Clem might not have much time. The best chance we have finding her is if we all go together. So who's with me?", asked Lee.

"I'm sorry Lee, but it's too risky. If you turn...", Lilly trailed off.

"You'd rather stay behind than look for a girl who's life could be in danger at this very minute?!", asked Rugby.

"Well, I'm going," said Carley. Lee pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you Carley. You don't know how much this means to me," said Lee.

"I'm coming too. I owe her. I swear, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure Clementine's safe," said Ben.

"Those who are going with Lee, raise your hand," said Jeremy. Immediately, Carley, Kenny, Christa, Omid, Ben, Aelita, the Rugby twins, Anne, William, Ulrich, Molly, and Jeremy raised their hands.

"Those staying behind?"

Lilly, Patrick, Jamie, Billy, and reluctantly, Yumi, raised their hands.

"I'm sorry Lee, but it's too dangerous. Besides, someone needs to stay and make sure that Jamie and Billy are alright," said Yumi.

"I understand," said Lee.

"Sorry, cuz, but Lee's bitten, and he might turn," said Patrick.

Jeremy sighed.

"Just... make sure that Jamie and Billy stay safe, OK?", he asked. Patrick nodded.

"Come on, let's go," Lee said as the people who raised their hands left with him.

They easily made their way through the sewers. As they climbed through the secret passage, they got their weapons ready. Lee slammed the door open and held his gun out in front of him. No one was in the morgue.

"What the? Where are they?", Ulrich asked.

"Vernon! Get out here! There doesn't have to be any trouble! All I want is the girl!", Lee shouted. No answer.

They heard growling and looked up at the window to see walkers staggering by.

Suddenly, Clementine's radio came on.

"Lee?", they heard Clementine's voice say. Lee immediately picked up the radio and asked, "Clementine? Are you OK? Where are you?!"

Suddenly another voice came from the radio.

"Hello, Lee."

Their eyes widened.

"Who are you?!", Jeremy asked, loud enough so the voice could hear him.

"It's not Vernon, if that's what you're thinking," said the mysterious voice.

"That sounds like the guy we heard on the train!", said Aelita.

"Where's Clementine?", Lee growled.

"Clementine's fine, but if I were you, I'd choose my next words very carefully."

"What do you want from us?!", asked Lee.

"Simple. I want Lee to never hurt anyone again," said the voice. "This isn't a kidnapping."

"Then what is it?", Carley asked.

"A rescue," the voice said before Lee shut off the radio.

After a moment of silence, Odd said, "He better not hurt her."

"And if he does, we'll make him pay," said Kenny.

"We'll do whatever it takes. We won't let one tiny bite stop us from saving her," said Tim.

"But how are we gonna do that when there are dozens of walkers in the streets?", asked Anne.

"Honestly? I have no idea," Lee replied as he stared at the radio.


	9. Chapter 9 No Time Left

Chapter 9

The group stood in silence as the walkers passed by.

"How's that feeling?", Ulrich asked as he pointed at the bite on Lee's wrist.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," said Lee.

"Well, if you start feeling something, let us know," said Christa.

Suddenly, they heard more growling. They looked at the door and saw walkers crawling through the secret passage. Kenny, Christa, and William quickly slammed the door shut.

"Lee! Hurry and find us a way outta here!", Kenny said.

"I'll help!", Jeremy said as he ran over to some cabinets and yanked them open, finding a rib spreader. He picked it up and gave the tool to Lee.

"That should do," Lee said as he took it and walked over to an elevator. He stuck it in between the doors and cranked the handle. Suddenly, he started feeling dizzy.

"Lee?", Jeremy asked.

The older man stepped away from the elevator and fainted. "LEE!", Odd shouted as the group ran over to him.

"Is he alive?", asked Kenny.

"This is so not good...", Anne muttered.

"Help me move him," Christa said as she, Molly, Carley, Kenny, and Ulrich picked him up and placed him on one of the tables.

"What now?", asked Ulrich. "It's the bite. We're gonna have to cut it off," Kenny said as he grabbed a hacksaw and walked over to Lee.

"Sorry pal, this has to be done," he said as he prepared to cut off Lee's arm.

Suddenly, Lee snapped open his eyes and shouted, "WHOA!"

"Stop! He's awake!", Christa said loudly, gaining everyone's attention.

"He's still bitten!", Kenny said.

"So?!", Carley asked.

"This is about trying to save him... or at least buy him some time!", said Kenny.

"But do we have to cut it off?", asked Ben.

"More importantly, do we even know that it's gonna work?", asked Aelita.

"Is there gonna be a lot of blood?", asked Ben. "Of course there's gonna be a lot of blood," said Carley.

"Let's do it. Maybe it'll work," Lee said as he sat up.

"You sure? It's a pretty big risk," Tim said.

"Yeah, we don't have a lot of options down here," said Omid.

"F**k it. Cut it off," said Lee. "You sure?", asked Molly. He nodded and placed his arm on the table.

"It'll be over before you know it," he said to himself.

Kenny and Christa looked at the hacksaw lying on the table.

"It was a lot easier when I thought he was out," said Kenny.

Christa looked at him. He shrugged.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. I'LL do it," Christa said as she took the saw. She walked over to Lee and placed the saw on his arm.

"I'll go as fast as I can," she said.

"You can do it," Lee assured her.

She then started slicing.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!"

Ben fainted when he saw the blood. Carley covered her mouth and stared in horror.

"Try to stay still!", Christa told Lee.

"RRRGGGGHHHH!"

Anne pulled her hat over her eyes so she couldn't see the blood.

_"Don't puke, don't puke, don't puke...", _Odd chanted in his head as he shut his eyes.

"AAAGHHH!", Lee shouted.

"I'M SORRY!", Christa shouted before going back to slicing. Lee then passed out from blood loss.

"Quick! Find something to stop the bleeding!", Christa ordered. Aelita grabbed a roll of gauze on another table and handed it to her.

"Here!", she said. Christa took it and wrapped it around where Lee's arm used to be.

"That should do it," said Christa.

Several minutes later, Lee came to.

Odd sighed in relief. "We thought we lost ya back there."

"My arm hurts so bad... I hope it helps," said Lee.

"You think you'll be able to walk? You lost a lot of blood," said Jeremy.

They heard growling coming from the other side of the door.

"Yeah," said Lee. "Good. The elevator's open, so let's go," Kenny said as the group ran up the ramp.

"I don't wanna bleed on anyone, so I'll stay in the back," Lee said before they walked into the elevator, only to find that the elevator was gone.

"Oh, come on," William muttered as he looked up.

"We're gonna have to go as quiet as possible and make it to an empty floor, or even the roof," said Christa.

"Wait, we're climbing up there?", asked Ulrich.

"Yeah. What's wrong?", asked Christa.

"I have vertigo, so I don't do so good with climbing up high places," Ulrich said as he looked down.

"Don't worry, we'll be right behind you," Christa said.

They then started climbing up one at a time. Lee got on the ladder last.

"You OK down there?", asked Jeremy. Lee nodded. Kenny, who was the first to climb up saw something falling towards them.

"Watch out!", he shouted as everyone ducked down.

"What the h**l was that?!", asked Molly.

"Looked like a walker," said William.

"Everything OK up there?", asked Lee.

"That almost gave me a heart attack!", Tim said.

"I'll take that as a yes," said Lee. Ulrich glanced down and saw how high up they were and started getting dizzy. He quickly shook his head and looked back up. Carley noticed this.

"Just don't look down," she said as they climbed the rest of the way up.

After three more minutes of climbing, they had made their way to a door that led to the roof.

"Finally. Solid ground," Jeremy said as they walked out of the door. He looked up at a wall with the words 'NO HELP' painted in big white letters.

"Wonder when this place got overrun?" he thought out loud as they walked over to the edge of the roof to find dozens of walkers staggering around in the streets.

"You guys remember when Savannah was empty?", asked Anne.

"There must be thousands of them," Kenny breathed.

"You think they followed us here?", asked Ben. "They must have. Remember when we were on the train and a herd of walkers started coming after us? I think they wandered here," said Jeremy.

"What do we do now?", asked Omid. "How about we wait for an opening?", Rugby suggested.

"I don't know... we could be waiting here a LONG time until they leave," said Ben.

"Rugby's right. Anyone know how far the mansion and what direction is it from here?", asked Lee.

"It's between us and River Street, so we can stop and retrace our steps if we need to," said Jeremy.

"Well, let's get our bearings and try to figure out a way to make it across town," said Kenny. Odd glanced around and saw a bell tower to their right. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head.

"Hey guys, I have an idea!", he said. "What is it?", asked Carley.

"When we met Molly, she told us she's been getting around town by ringing the bells to attract the walkers' attention, and there's a bell tower right next to us. So if we ring it, we'll be able to draw the walkers towards it and there'll be an opening for us!", Odd said.

"Odd, that's the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say!" Jeremy said with a smile.

"Only question is... how are we gonna do that?", asked William. Lee noticed a ladder and picked it up.

"Uh, what're you doing?", Anne asked as Lee walked by them.

"I'll use the ladder so I can get to the bell," said Lee.

"You need some help carrying that?", asked Kenny. "Nah, I got it," Lee said as he walked over to the gap and placed it on the edge so the top of the ladder would be on the floor of the bell tower.

"Are you sure you should be the one to go?", asked Carley.

"If we have to decide who takes a risk like this, it should be the guy who's got the least to lose," said Lee. "What's the worse that could happen? I get bitten again?"

He turned around and grabbed the ladder.

"That thing looks a little rickety," Kenny said.

"Mind keeping that sh** to yourself next time, Ken?"

"Sorry."

Lee then started climbing up. Suddenly, a piece that held the top part of the ladder up broke off and it started sliding down. Lee quickly climbed up and made it to the bell tower just in time as the ladder fell into the alley and landed on a walker.

"Are you OK, Lee?", Carley asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine!", he replied. "Try to find another way outta there!", Aelita yelled.

"Seems like there's only one way out," Lee said as he looked down at the alley. He then walked over to a rope and pulled it four times, causing it to ring. Out in the streets, the walkers heard the sound and started staggering towards the hospital.

"It's working! Now, get back here, quick!", Christa shouted. Lee nervously looked over the edge.

"You're gonna have to jump!", Kenny shouted. Lee started backing away in order to get a running start.

"Just shout 'For Narnia!'. It helps!", Anne told him, earning looks from the group.

"What? It helped me forget I was up so high when Odd and I jumped onto the train!"

"Jump on three! One... two... THREE!", William shouted.

Lee then ran and jumped off the bell tower. He grabbed the edge and pulled himself up.

"Nice jump!", Ulrich said.

"Let's get the h**l off this roof!", Kenny said as they dashed to the fire escape and climbed down it.

Later...

A lone walker staggered down a sidewalk. As the group walked around the corner, Lee took out his gun and shot it in the head before putting his gun back up. They walked over to the shed to find that it was barred by a piece of wood.

They heard some banging coming from inside it.

"LET US OUT OF HERE NOW OR I'LL RIP YOUR HEADS OFF!"

"That sounds like Lilly," Aelita said as she took the wood out of the handles and opened the doors, revealing a VERY angry Lilly with Patrick, Yumi, Jamie, and Billy in the back of the shed. Also, a very important thing was missing: the boat.

"What the?!", asked Lee.

"They f**ked us! Vernon led his "helpless" group of cancer patients here, beat us up, and stole the boat!", Lilly said.

"They also tried to take Jamie and Billy with them, but they refused," said Patrick, who had a black eye. "I fought them until they gave up and took the boat."

Lilly glanced at Lee's arm and her eyes widened.

"What the h**l happened to your arm?", she asked. "I had it cut off. Thought it would buy me some time," Lee said.

"Does it hurt?", asked Billy. Lee looked at his stump and said, "Yeah, just a little."

"I can't believe they did this to us!", Kenny angrily said.

Christa glanced at the street and said, "Omid, can you climb over the fence and unlock the other side of the shed so we can get through? We really shouldn't be out in the open like this."

"Yeah," her boyfriend said as he climbed over the fence.

"This is not happening...", Kenny muttered.

"Kenny, snap out of it! Clementine's still out there!", Carley said.

"So we get Clementine and then what?!", Kenny asked.

"We get the h**l out of Savannah. I'm done with cities," said Christa. "That sounds like a good idea to me," said Ben.

"Nobody asked you!", Kenny snapped.

"You just did."

"Don't be a smart alek with me, kid!", said Kenny.

"Guys, Christa is right. There are a lot of walkers in the cities, so there's gotta be a lot less in the countryside," said Jeremy.

"Jer, we'll talk about that later. Right now we need to figure out what to do now that the boat's gone," said Lee before getting back to the argument. "Guys, we have to keep it together. Don't turn on each other now!"

"Yeah, chill out, Kenny!", Ben said, earning a nasty look from the man.

Omid then opened the shed doors on the other side.

"We can discuss this in the backyard," said Christa as they walked into the back yard. Kenny then started yelling at Ben.

"Where the h**l do you get off?!", Kenny asked.

"I'm just saying that we should ALL chill!", Ben said.

"CHILL?! Lee's bitten and we have no idea how much time he has left, Clementine is who the f**k knows, and we're robbed of the only hope we've had!", Kenny shouted.

"So?", asked Ben.

Odd and Ulrich looked at each other and shrugged.

"So Lee, Anne, Odd, and Jeremy should have left your a** in Crawford. We got enough problems," Kenny seethed.

This comment made something in Ben snap.

**"F**K YOU, KENNY!"**, the teen shouted angrily, making everyone's eyes widen, including Kenny's.

"Whoa, careful guys!", Lee said as he took a step forward, but was stopped by Christa.

"No, let him talk," she said.

"I am so, so, SO sorry about Katjaa and Duck. I AM. I know I screwed up, but just STOP pushing me around and STOP wishing I was dead!", Ben said.

Kenny opened his mouth to say something, but Ben cut him off.

"NO! You know how your family died! You got to say goodbye to them. I never got to see my family. My parents, my little sister... Your family is gone, but at least you had them to lose. I never made it back home. I don't know where my family is! They could be alive, or dead, or walkers, or WORSE or I don't know! **SO GIVE ME A F**KING** **BREAK!**"

Kenny's jaw dropped at Ben's story.

"Aw, Ben, I'm sorry-"

Kenny was cut off when they saw walkers coming. And there were A LOT.

"Oh sh**! They're coming!", Patrick shouted.

"Everyone in the house NOW!", Lee ordered as the survivors dashed inside. Lee slammed the door behind them.

"They shouldn't be able to get into the backyard, right?", Kenny asked. His question was answered when they heard a thump outside.

"Never mind."

"We can secure this place!", said Christa.

"Good idea. Christa, Lilly, Patrick, and William! Search the house for weapons!", Lee ordered.

"Got it!", William said as the four immediately started searching.

"Kenny, Jeremy, and Odd! Move anything you can against the doors and windows!"

"Aye aye!", Odd shouted as he and Kenny dashed off.

"Carley and Ulrich, kill anything that gets in!"

"Right!", Carley said as she and the brunet got their weapons ready.

"Ben and Molly, help Christa!", Lee said.

"On it!", Ben told him as they dashed away.

"Aelita, Rugby, Tim, and Yumi! Get Jamie and Billy upstairs where it's safe!"

"You got it, Lee!", Aelita said as they took Jamie and Billy upstairs.

"Anne and Omid-", Lee began to say, but he then noticed that their eyes were widened.

"What is it?", he asked. They didn't answer and darted to the front doors, which were wide open, revealing that walkers were slowly making ther way towards it.

"EVERYONE HELP OMID AND ANNE NOW!"

Ulrich, Jeremy, Carley, Odd, Kenny, Christa, and Ben immediately darted to the front doors and helped Omid and Anne keep it shut, but some walkers stuck their arms through the cracks.

"LEE! Find something to chop their freaking arms off!", Jeremy shouted as he struggled to keep the door shut.

"There's gotta be a knife in there!", shouted Odd.

Lee darted into the kitchen and came out with a cleaver.

"Cut their f**king arms off!", Carley shouted. Lee slashed at the arms and the fingers until they were severed. Once the arms were out of the way, they slammed the doors shut.

"What now?", asked Ulrich.

"Get ready to fight," Lee replied.

"This house seems sturdy to me. I think we're fine now," said Christa.

Suddenly, a walker smashed it's arm through one of the windows. In the kitchen, more walkers knocked the door down and staggered inside.

"Sturdy my a**! Get upstairs!", Lee shouted as the nine darted upstairs, where the rest were. Ulrich stopped when he saw a certain walker climb through the window. It was Brie. His eyes widened before he pulled out his katana.

"Sorry Brie," he said softly before stabbing the walker in the head and darted upstairs.

Christa and Omid shot at a few walkers. "Guys! Help me with this!", Kenny shouted as he started pushing a desk. Jeremy and Patrick helped him push it into a doorway.

"Everyone get to the end of the hallway!", Christa said as they darted to the end of the hallway.

"Now what?!", asked Ben.

"I'll tell ya what! We get to the end of the hallway and take a f**king stand!", Kenny shouted before he, Jeremy, and Patrick hopped over the desk and joined them.

"Those of you who don't have guns get into the attic now!", he ordered as Molly, Odd, Ulrich, and Patrick climbed up into the attic where Aelita, Jamie, Billy, the Rugby twins, and Yumi were hiding.

"Guys, how many bullets do you have?", Jeremy asked as he pulled out his gun. Everyone checked their guns.

"Three," said Christa.

"Five," said Lee.

"Three," said Kenny.

"Five," said Carley.

"Four," said Omid.

"Three," said William.

"Four," said Lilly.

"Four," said Anne.

"Two," said Ben.

"Good. Use them wisely," said Jeremy.

"You all know where to aim," said Kenny.

"Get ready," Carley growled as they all held their guns out, ready to fire.

For a moment, nothing happened. When the first walker appeared, Lee took the first shot. They all began firing at all the walkers they saw.

"Shoot! I'm out!", Anne shouted in alarm. "Me too!", shouted Lee.

"Guys! Up here!", they heard Molly shout. The group quickly climbed up the ladder. Lee quickly pulled the ladder up just as the walkers reached it.

"Well, that could've gone better," Kenny said as he placed his hands on his hips.

"Is everyone alright?", asked Christa.

"Lee's still bitten!"

"Shut up," Christa said.

"Guys, we should get outta this place and keep moving," said William.

"William's right. Think there's a chance we could catch up to Clem and the boat thieves?", asked Kenny.

"Maybe," Lee said with a shrug.

"Well, we're definitely not going through this window. There's no latches and no roof access," said Omid.

"Anyone have any ideas?", asked Yumi.

"I bet this guy does. He's got some sort of resourceful air around him," Omid said as he looked at a stone bust. Odd couldn't help but snicker as he looked at the stone bust.

"Dixon Kent the Third. Industrial-"

"OMID."

"Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood here," Omid said. "So... no ideas then," Kenny said.

"There's gotta be some type of way out of here," Lee said as he wiped his forehead. Carley placed her hand on his forehead.

"You're warm," she said in alarm.

"Carley, don't worry. I'm fine," said Lee. Clementine's radio then came back on.

"Lee? Lee? Lee, I'm OK. I'm where my parents are staying at- oh no!", they heard Clementine say before static was heard.

"What does that mean?", asked Yumi.

"She's at the hotel where her parents were staying at!", said Jeremy. "The guy that kidnapped her hasn't moved her yet!"

"We gotta get moving if we wanna save Clementine," said Kenny.

"Everyone, we need to keep looking for a way out!", said Lee.

"You think that worked?", Kenny said as he gestured to Lee's stump.

"I don't know. I hope so."

"I think that we should talk about what happens if Lee has another fainting spell," said Kenny. "We could be having another Larry situation here."

Lilly flinched at her father's name.

"Who's Larry?", asked Christa. "Doesn't matter right now," Lilly told her.

"Guys, I think we should worry about Clem right now," said Aelita.

"We won't do her any good if Lee attacks us," said Kenny. "That's not gonna happen," Lee said, narrowing his eyes. "How do you know that?", asked Kenny.

"Whoa, now...", Tim said, hoping to stop the argument.

"Lee, I'm not advocating anything here, but how is that not a thing?", Kenny asked as he pointed at Lee's stump again. "We're all so worked up about rescuing Clem that we forgot what happened to your arm!"

"Kenny, what if it was you who was in my place and it was DUCK out there?", Lee asked. Jeremy's jaw involuntarily dropped at this.

"Whoa there, PAL!", Kenny said, emphasizing on the word 'pal'.

"I bet that you'd rather stay focused on the problem and not have people turn on you!", Lee said.

"Guys, come on! Knock it off!", Ulrich said.

"Lee, you're gonna listen to me! Listen to these words: we are gonna get Clementine back with OR without you!"

"You're not touching me. You got that?", Lee asked. "All of you know what to do if I turn."

"You might turn into one of them anytime now! How can you be so f**king calm now?!", Kenny shouted. He then grabbed the stone bust. Everyone backed away from him. He lifted the stone bust above his head, like he was going to throw it at Lee, but instead, he turned around and threw it straight at the wall, leaving a dent in it.

After an awkward moment of silence, Omid humorously said, "You ruined that dude's face."

"Shut up, sweetie," Christa said quickly. "Guys, look at this."

Jeremy walked over to the dent and pulled out a piece of wood.

"Well, whaddya know?", he said as he stared at the wood.

"What do you think is on the other side?", asked Christa.

"I dunno, a thirty foot drop?", Anne guessed.

"No. This mansion butts up against the one next door," said Omid. "Are you saying that we'll be able to bust our way into the house next door?", asked Carley.

"Exactly."

Lee grabbed a coat rack rammed it into the wall, causing more wood to break apart.

"Oh yeah, this is definitely gonna work," said Lee.

"Lemme see that," Kenny said as he took the coat rack from Lee and started stabbing the wall with it. "We'll work in shifts. The rest of you relax."

Jeremy and Aelita sat down on a couch together with Lee and Carley sitting next to them and Omid and Christa sitting opposite of them.

"Lee, I'm really glad you told us that you got bit. It would've a lot easier not to," said Jeremy.

"Yeah, if you haven't told us, we would have let you go alone," said Christa. "And that would have been a big mistake."

"If I were you, I'd be scared sh**less," Omid said.

"If you were me, you'd be a foot taller and fifty pounds heavier," Lee joked. Christa, Jeremy, Aelita, and Carley couldn't help but giggle at this.

"With your arm and my leg, I'll cripple fight you right here," Omid said with a smile on his face.

"I still got my right arm, so I can put my palm on your forehead and let you swing away," said Lee. Aelita imagined this and chuckled.

"You know, it's so weird. I keep doing a double-take on your arm, expecting it to be there," said Christa.

"I just hope whatever that was in the bite is gone," said Lee.

"OK, so when we get to whoever took Clementine, what do you think we should do?", asked Omid.

"I think we should find out who he is and why he took Clem," said Carley.

"I agree. He could keep coming after us," Jeremy said.

"If something happens to you while we're at it...", Omid trailed off.

"Can we please stop talking about that?", Carley asked. "Lee, when we were in the hospital, I could tell that you thought you were as good as dead."

"Carley, I was bitten," Lee said. "But you cut it off," she told him.

"What good is it to plan around that working?"

"What good is it for you to give up?"

"I haven't given up. Carley, I want you to take care of Clementine if anything should happen to me."

"Don't talk like that, Lee," said Carley. Jeremy looked at Ben.

"What about him?", he asked. "We gotta support him. Remember, he's still a kid like you," Lee said.

"Does he blow up like that often?", asked Omid, referring to his outburst earlier. "Nope. This is the first time he's ever lost his temper," said Aelita.

"Well, it's good he did. Kenny couldn't pull that kinda sh** on me," said Christa.

"Well... he did kill his family, so there's been some tension betweem those two," said Jeremy.

"What happened?", asked Omid.

"Kenny's son, Duck, got bitten during a raid at an inn we were staying at from some guys that Ben secretly worked with in an attempt to help us. Turns out, they used him. Later, Kenny's wife died because she couldn't take seeing Duck die," Jeremy said.

"OK, I'm outta gas, you guys," Kenny said as he walked over to them.

"I'll go do it," Omid said as he got up and took the coat rack. Kenny sat down.

"Shouldn't be long now. We're almost through," he said.

"That's good. I thought it might take longer for us to get through," Anne said as she walked over to them and leaned on the back of the couch.

"How's that been feeling?", she asked as she looked at Lee's stump. "I can handle the pain, but I'm so tired right now," said Lee.

"You think it helped at all?", Kenny asked.

"I feel like a man that got bitten. So take that for what it's worth."

"I still can't believe that you got chomped," Carley muttered.

Kenny sighed.

"You OK?", asked Christa. "I don't know how to answer that...", he muttered. "It'll be alright," Lee reassured him.

"Why are you guys acting like what's happened ain't happened?", Kenny asked. "Anyway, I appreciate it from you guys. A lot of us have lost our families," he said before glancing at Ben, who was sulking in a corner.

"Maybe you should take it easy on him from now on," Jeremy said. "I'm angry, but I'm not sure if I'm angry at him, or not," said Kenny.

"You heard what he said outside," said Aelita.

Kenny nodded. "I did. Never really thought about like that," he said before peeking into a box on the side of the couch and pulled out a bottle of whiskey.

"Did they tell you what we've been through?", he asked as he uncorked the bottle.

"They told us bits and pieces of your story," said Christa.

"Well, there's something else you should know. Before we met you, Lilly got really paranoid after the attack on the inn and started blaming a couple of us on stealing the supplies. She nearly killed Carley if it wasn't for William and Anne," said Kenny.

"Those two managed to restrain her from doing anything until we decided that we couldn't leave Lilly like that. They're still keeping an eye on her," said Aelita.

"Anyway, before the attack on the inn, we had to deal with her dad, Larry, who had some anger issues. Most of the group hated his guts," said Kenny.

"When we were thrown into a meat locker by cannibals, Larry had a heart attack. We weren't sure if he was still alive, so Lee tried CPR on him, but Kenny grabbed this thing called a salt lick and...", Anne said, trailing off.

"I'm pretty sure he had a good reason to do that," Christa said.

Kenny sighed and lifted the whiskey bottle. "Well, cheers," he said before drinking some of it. He then offered it to Lee and Carley.

"No thanks, we're good," said Lee. He turned to Christa and offered her the bottle. She stared at it for a moment before grabbing it and drank a lot, surprising Kenny, Anne, Aelita, and Jeremy.

"Uh... Christa, are you OK?", Anne asked.

"I'm through!"

Everyone's head's turned to Omid, who had made a hole in the wall, revealing a room in the house next door.

"There's no walkers in here," Omid said as he poked his head through the hole.

"Looks like things are finally looking up for us!", Tim said cheerfully before they climbed through the hole one at a time.

"This place seems pretty sealed off from the walkers," said Carley. "Well, except for that," she said as she pointed at a bed. On the bed were a man and woman who had shot themselves in the head while holding hands. Everyone sadly stared at the scene. Yumi covered Jamie and Billy's eyes so they couldn't see the corpses.

"How could they do this?", Lee asked. "It's what Katjaa did," Kenny said.

"You did everything you could, Kenny," Lee said. "No... Kat left me, Duck, and people that cared about us. I forgive her, but it doesn't make it any less wrong. You don't end your life cause it's hard, you stick it out, and help the people that you care about," said Kenny. "So everyone, let's figure out a way outta here and get that little girl."

They nodded and started searching the room. Carley noticed Lee staring at the corpses.

"Lee? You OK?", she asked. He shook his head.

"I can't help but worry. What if we're not able to reach Clem in time?", he asked as Carley took his hand and placed it in hers.

"Don't worry, we'll find her," she said with a small smile. Lee smiled back.

"Hey, lovebirds! Get a room!", Odd said loudly with his trademark grin on his face, making them blush. Lee threw a hairbrush at the goofball, hoping that he'd shut up, but he ducked as it hit the wall.

"HA! You missed!", he taunted before getting hit by a slipper thrown by Carley. The two smiled in satisfaction before they went back to searching.

Billy noticed something behind a chair and pulled it out, revealing it to be a ladder.

"I found something!", he said. The group saw the ladder and smiled.

"Way to go, buddy!", Ulrich said as he gave him a high five.

Kenny picked it up and walked over to a door and opened it, revealing a balcony and another building.

"We'll be able to use this to get across," he said as he placed the ladder on the balcony and let it land on the edge of the roof. He climbed up it and looked back at the group.

"Come on! I'll hold onto the ladder while you climb up!"

The group climbed up one at a time until they were all on the roof. "We should be able to see the hotel if we keep going on the rooftops. It'd also be much safer," said Jeremy once everyone was out of the building.

"Great idea, Jeremy," Kenny said as they walked across the roof. When they came to some sort of bridge, they carefully walked across it. Ulrich tried not to look down as they crossed it.

"Guys, River Street's just up ahead," Omid told them.

"Good. That guy's gonna pay for taking Clementine," said Kenny. Aelta looked down into a hole in the roof and saw walkers staggering around.

"Even the buildings are full...", she muttered before saying, "Guys, be careful and watch out for holes in the roofs."

"Right. Don't wanna land in a geek-infested building, do we?", said Molly.

Soon, the sun started to go down.

"I can see the Marsh House just around the corner," said Lee. "It looks like we're gonna have to cross this sign," William said as he pointed at a sign that connected the building they were on to the one across from them.

"Well, at least it doesn't look like a death trap," Omid said before they heard creaking coming from the sign. Christa gave him a look before he asked, "So, who should go first?"

"Definately not Jamie and Billy," said Anne.

"Omid and Odd are the lightest," said Lilly. "Omid's got a busted leg, and Christa's walking for two. Obviously, I'm not doing so hot, but I'l go first," said Lee.

"Lee. Wait," Carley said. "What is it?", he asked before Carley kissed him on the lips. The kiss lasted for five seconds before they pulled away from each other.

"That was for good luck," she told him. He smiled before turning around and climbing down onto the sign. It seemed OK for him until the sign snapped in half as he made it to the end. He quickly climbed onto the building and looked back at the group, who's eyes were widened.

"Oh no!", Carley shouted.

"SH**! Lee, what're you gonna do?!", Ben hollered.

"I'll figure something out!", Lee shouted back.

"There really isn't a lot of options!", Jeremy yelled.

Lee looked down at the walkers before saying, "Screw it, I'm going for it!"

"WHAT?! Lee, you're insane!", Anne yelled. "I'm already bitten! I'll just have to push my way through!", said Lee.

"What the f**k?!", asked Ulrich. "Find me when you get down!", Lee told them. "What the h**l do ya mean by that?!", asked Kenny.

"It means what it sounds like! The Marsh House is just around the corner! Find me and Clementine as soon as you can!"

"YOU'RE CRAZY!", shouted Christa. "There's no other way!", Lee said.

He then climbed down the remains of the sign before jumping off and landing in the street. He got up and ran through the herd.

They watched in amazement as he got out the cleaver and stabbed several walkers with it as he made his way to the hotel.

"Wow... he really is crazy," Jeremy said as he watched the scene in awe.

Lee stabbed one more walker before he entered the Marsh House.

"What now?", asked Odd.

"We do what Lee said and get down from here. We'll meet up with him as soon as possible," Carley said.

"Which way do we go?", asked Ben.

"This way!", Molly said as she ran to the left and jumped onto another building.

"Hey, ninja girl! Slow down!", Rugby shouted as the group climbed onto the roof with her.

"You see an opening?", Lilly asked as she looked around. Yumi looked at the streets and narrowed her eyes.

"There!", Yumi shouted as she pointed at a street with no walkers.

"Come on!", Kenny shouted. "We can use the fire escape!"

They quickly ran to the fire escape and lowered the ladder. They each climbed down one at a time and made sure that Billy and Jamie were with them.

"Now remember, there are a lot of walkers over there, so don't make any noise," Jeremy whispered as they quietly made their way away from the herd.

As they walked past several buildings, they ran into two walkers. Anne got out one of her knives and Odd got his crossbow ready.

"Outta our way!", he said before shooting the walker in the head. Anne stabbed the other with her knife.

Odd took the arrow out of it's head.

"Nice shot," Christa said as they walked past the now dead walkers.

"Guys, where should we go now?", asked Ulrich.

"Out of Savannah. There's gotta be a lot less in the country," said Carley.

"But what about Lee and Clem?", asked Tim.

"Maybe we should wait by the train," Omid suggested.

"Good idea. The train should be about five blocks away from where we're standing," Kenny said.

Several minutes later...

The survivors had finally made it out of Savannah, but what they found shocked them. Two dozen walkers had surrounded the train, cutting off their access to it.

"Sh**! New plan!", Kenny exclaimed.

"And the plan is?", Jeremy asked.

"We get the h**l outta here!", the older man shouted as he and the group ran away from the train.

"Where are we gonna go? It's starting to get dark!", said Jamie. "No way we're going back to Savannah! We just have to keep moving until we find Lee and Clementine!", Kenny said as they kept running.

Meanwhile...

Clementine cried as she held Lee's gun and looked at the man who had protected her from everything, who was now extremely pale and was handcuffed to a bar.

"You have to shoot me, honey," Lee told her.

"Lee, no...", she said as tears ran down her face.

"It's OK... Clem, when I was standing over Duck with that gun, it was so hard. I'm sorry you're in that position right now. I'd give anything for you not to be," Lee weakly said.

"Listen closely, Clem. You have to find Carley... Jeremy... Kenny... and the others. They'll take care of you," he said. Clementine started to cry even more.

"And Clem... keep that hair short," Lee said.

"I will...", Clementine said.

"I'll miss you..."

"Me too...", Clem said as she raised the gun and aimed it at Lee's head. Her hands shook as she held it. She shut her eyes before squeezing the trigger.

**BANG!**

...

...

...

Clementine wiped away a few tears as she trudged through a grassy field. She then sat down on a log and looked at some bullets on the ground. She picked one up, looked up, and gasped. In the distance, she saw a group of figures walking. Suddenly, they stopped and looked at her.

One of the figures waved it's arms above it's head. Another one of the figures whacked it on the back of the head.

She gasped. She recognized the gesture. Yumi would always whack Odd on the back of the head whenever he waved to someone that was close, and the figures in the distance did the same thing. So that would mean...

"CARLEY?! GUYS?!", she yelled at the top of her lungs.

"CLEMENTINE, IS THAT YOU?! STAY RIGHT THERE, WE'RE COMING!", she heard the familiar voice of Kenny yell as the group ran towards her. Once they reached her, they skidded to a halt.

"CLEM! You're OK!", Odd shouted as he picked her up and spun her around happily. "Aaaannnd... you're covered in blood," he said once he saw the blood smeared on her dress. He set her down.

"You gave us quite a scare!", Aelita said.

Carley knelt down to Clementine's level.

"Clementine, what happened? Where's Lee?", the former reporter asked. The girl started to cry again.

"He... he saved me from the stranger that kidnapped me... he covered us in walker blood so we could disguise our smell and led me outside... and... and my parents were..."

Their eyes widened. Clementine's parents really were dead...

"Lee fainted, so I dragged him into a store. He... he told me to find you guys before he had me... shoot him...", the girl said as tears streamed down her face. Carley pulled her into a hug.

"Shh... it's OK. You're safe with us," she said. Ben knelt down and said, "You must be tired after what happened. Want me to carry you?"

Clementine nodded. Ben picked her up and placed her on his back.

"Guys, we should probably keep moving," Omid said. They nodded and started to walk, but Jeremy just stood there looking down in thought.

"Hm?", Kenny asked as he stopped and looked back at the blonde genius. "Jer? You OK?", he asked. "Huh?", Jeremy asked as he snapped out of his thoughts. "Uh, yeah. I'm good," he told the older man.

"Good. Then let's go," Kenny said as the boy caught up with them. As they continued trudging through the fields, they couldn't stop thinking about Lee, especially Carley and the Lyoko Warriors.

_"Don't worry, Lee. We'll keep her safe, no matter what...", _Carley thought.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

The group had stopped and made camp after many hours of walking. They made sure that the fire wasn't big enough so that the walkers or bandits couldn't see them. Jeremy, Ulrich, Lilly, and Omid offered to stay on watch while the others rested.

Jeremy held his gun, which was a Glock 17 like Carley's, and looked down at the dirt.

"Hey, Einstein? You alright?", asked Ulrich.

Jeremy was silent for a few seconds before saying, "No, I'm not."

"What's on your mind?", asked Omid.

"It's the walkers. They're killing and turning everyone we know into one of them," said Jeremy. "Now they've gotten Lee."

"I was sure that cutting his arm off helped stop the virus from spreading," said Ulrich.

"Guess it didn't. We should have cut it off right after he was bit, and he would still be here with us," Jeremy said.

He then glanced at Clementine, who was sitting next to Carley.

"How do you think she's holding up?", asked Lilly.

"I don't know. She did just lose the closest thing she has to a father," Ulrich said soft enough so Clementine couldn't hear.

Jeremy looked up at the sky.

"I swear, if XANA is behind all of this, I will make him pay for killing Lee," he said as he clutched his gun.

The next day...

Everyone was up and ready to go. Well, except for Odd.

"Come on, get up," William said as he nudged him lightly with his foot. No response.

Carley sighed. "He's still not getting up," she said in annoyance.

Anne kicked him harder and said, "Odd, if you don't get your a** up right now, we're leaving you behind!"

He darted up immediately. "Alright, alright! I'm up!", he shouted.

Anne smiled. "Good. Let's get going."

...

...

"Hey Ulrich," said Odd.

"Yeah?"

"Guess what?"

"Don't you dare say 'Chicken Butt'."

"Oh, come on, Ulrich! I'm just trying to lighten the mood!", Odd whined.

...

...

"OK, I spy with my little eye... something... green!", said Odd.

Anne sighed. "Let me guess. The grass?"

"Dang it!"

After five more minutes of Odd's attempts to cheer up the group, Aelita noticed something and stopped walking.

"Hey guys?", she asked, gaining their attention.

"What is it?", asked Yumi.

"Look at that," the rosette said as she pointed at the sky. In the distance, a thin trail of smoke could be seen coming out from behind some trees.

"You think that there are survivors where the smoke's coming from?", asked Carley.

"It might be bandits," said Lilly.

"There's only one way to find out. Guys, get ready to use your guns, just in case," said Kenny as they walked towards the smoke.

Soon, they had reached the source of the trail of smoke. They hid behind bushes and trees while William, Anne, and Christa observed from their hiding places.

"What do ya see?", asked Kenny.

"Um...", William said as he narrowed his eyes to get a closer look. "Well, they're not wearing the clothes that the bandits wear."

"Good, then that means that they're just survivors," said Anne.

"But, they might attack us if we approach them," said Rugby.

"Well, just send a few of us and give us the OK if they're nice people," said Ulrich.

"Alright, I'll go," said Carley.

"Me too," said Jeremy.

"Count me in," said Kenny.

"I'm going!", said Odd.

"OK. Clementine, whatever you do, don't leave my side, OK?", Carley said. The little girl nodded.

"We should put our guns away so they won't get the wrong idea," Jeremy said.

"Good idea, Jer," Kenny said as they all tucked their guns away. Odd strapped his crossbow onto his back.

"Let's go," Carley said as the five out of the bushes and carefully walked towards the camp. As they got closer to it, they raised their hands in surrender. A woman with red hair wearing a white tank top and blue jeans noticed them and gasped.

"VINCE!", she shouted as a man who reminded them of Glenn grabbed a gun and aimed it at them.

"Whoa! Easy!", Odd said in alarm.

"Who the h**l are you?!", the man, who they presumed was Vince, demanded.

"Uh, I'm Jeremy, and this is Odd, Carley, Kenny, and Clementine," Jeremy said as he introduced themselves.

"How'd you find us?", asked a girl wearing a brown jacket, red shirt, and jeans. She looked about Jeremy's age and looked a lot like Clementine.

"One of the members in our group noticed the smoke, so we followed it here," said Carley.

A boy around Ben's age wearing a red T-shirt and jeans sighed and said, "See? I told you we shouldn't have made a fire!"

"How else were we gonna cook our food?", asked a woman with very short brown hair wearing a white shirt and jeans.

"Hey, we're not looking for any trouble here," said Kenny. "If we were, we would have drawn out our guns."

"They're right. Guys, I think we can trust them," Vince said as he lowered his gun.

Jeremy sighed in relief.

"Trust me, the rest of us aren't like those bandits," he said.

"The rest of us?", a man wearing glasses, a yellow T-shirt and blue jeans, asked.

"Yeah. We were afraid that if we all approached you, you'd think that we were gonna steal your supplies and shoot us," Jeremy said as he looked back at the trees and bushes and waved.

"Guys! You can come out now! It's OK, they're not gonna shoot!", he called out. The rest of the group came out of their hiding spots.

"Are you sure?", asked Aelita. Jeremy smiled. "Yeah. Come on over and say hi to them!", he said as they walked over to them.

The man with the yellow shirt whistled. "You sure have a lot of people in your group," he said.

"Yeah, I guess we do," said Odd. The group then introduced themselves to the survivors.

"I'm Vince, sorry about the gun earlier," said Vince.

"Name's Wyatt," said the man with glasses.

"I'm Shel, and this is my younger sister, Becca," the brown haired woman said as she gestured to the girl.

"I'm Bonnie," said the red haired woman.

"Russell," said the teen.

"We actually have a seventh member in the group. She's in one of the tents right now. Hold on," Bonnie said as she crawled into a green tent. A few seconds later, she emerged with a little girl around eight years old. She had short hair that was the same color as Ben's hair and she wore a light blue T-shirt and denim shorts.

Ben gasped when he saw the girl.

"Holy sh**," he breathed.

"B- Benny?", the little girl asked.

"LUCY!", Ben yelled as he ran forward. The little girl jumped into Ben's arms and he pulled her into a hug.

Everyone's eyes widened. The little girl was Ben's sister!

"I thought you were dead!", Lucy said as she cried.

"Me too," Ben said as he held his little sister tightly. The survivors smiled at the heartwarming scene.

Soon, the survivors sat around the campfire.

"So... how did you guys meet?", asked Shel.

"Well, we met Clementine and a man named Lee after we escaped from some zombies. We stayed at a farm for the night, where we met Kenny, his wife, and his son. We got kicked out after the farmer's son died, so we headed into Macon, where we met Carley, Lilly, Larry, Doug, and Glenn," said Yumi.

"We were trapped in a pharmacy for a while. We managed to escape, but Doug ended up dying. Glenn left after we got to a motor inn. He said that he wanted to see if his friends were OK," said Ulrich.

"We stayed there for three months. During those three months, we met a guy named Mark. We let him stay when he brought a lot of food," said Tim.

"Soon, we met Ben when we found him and his friend trying to help their teacher get out of a bear trap," said William. "Soon after that, we met a family that ran the St. John's Dairy. We later found out that they were cannibals."

"Cannibals?! You mean that they ate humans?", asked Becca. Lilly nodded.

"They cut Mark's legs off and tried to feed them to us, but Lee and Jeremy stopped them. Later, my dad, Larry, had a heart attack and died," Lilly said, not wanting to go into the full details. "We managed to escape the dairy after Lee fought with one of the St. Johns," she said.

"A couple weeks later, Odd and Anne saved Jamie and Billy during a supply hunt. Soon, we were attacked by some bandits. Apparently, Ben thought he could keep them off our backs if he gave him supplies, and they didn't get their last package. We escaped in an RV that was in the motor inn. After things calmed down, Lilly started blaming some of us for stealing supplies and giving them to the bandits. She nearly killed Carley, but William and Anne managed to stop her," said Ulrich. "Later, we found out that Kenny's son, Duck, was bitten by a walker during the attack. We got onto a train, but stopped when it was time for Kenny's son to go. His wife, Katjaa, couldn't take seeing him die, so she killed herself before Duck died."

"Sh**...", Vince muttered.

"A little bit after that,we met Omid, Christa, and this old guy named Chuck. They came with us to Savannah, but we got separated from Chuck during a walker attack. We stayed in this house while Lee, Odd, Ulrich, Clementine, and I went into town, where we met Molly," said Kenny. "Later, we entered this part of Savannah called Crawford."

"What's Crawford?", asked Russell. "It's a place where everything's about survival of the fittest. Anyone under 14, anyone old, or anyone with an advanced medical condition wasn't allowed. If anyone was hiding someone like that and they found out, they would take them and kick them out of Crawford and leave them on their own. We snuck in and got medicine, a battery, and some fuel for this boat we were gonna use," said William.

"Some time after that, Clementine got kidnapped and Lee was bitten. We tried looking for Clem at the hospital, but Lee passed out. We cut off Lee's arm to try to stop the infection from spreading, and it seemed to work. There were a lot of walkers in the streets when we got to the roof, so Lee climbed onto a bell tower and used the bell to attract walkers. After we escaped from the hospital, we got back to the house to find out that the boat was stolen. We were forced into the attic when walkers invaded the house," said Carley.

"We all managed to get into another building and onto the rooftops. When we found the place that Clementine's kidnapper was keeping her, Lee jumped into a street full of walkers and made his way through into the hotel. The rest of us got out of Savannah and tried to find Lee and Clementine, but with no luck," said Aelita.

"He jumped into a walker infested street?!", Becca asked incredulously.

Odd nodded. "I know. Crazy, right?", he asked.

"Anyway, a couple days later, we found Clementine wandering around in a grassy field. When we saw that Lee wasn't with her, she told us that Lee had fainted from the bite. He had her shoot him to prevent him from turning into a walker," said Jeremy. "We've been walking through the country ever since."

The six survivor's jaws dropped at their story.

"Wow... you guys have been through a lot," said Bonnie.

"What about you? What's your story?", asked Anne.

"Well, I was going to prison after I shot someone," said Vince. "When walkers invaded the prison bus, I escaped with a guy who was also going to jail."

"I was with two people, Leland and his wife, Dee. We ended up getting chased by some people from another group. I accidentally killed Dee, and Leland escaped with me," said Bonnie.

"I met these guys after my friend and I were being chased by this crazy guy," said Wyatt. "I accidently left my friend behind when the attacker was about to kill me."

"I ran into these people after this psycho named Nate killed an old couple," said Russell. "I didn't want to be any part of it, so I left him behind while he killed the old people."

"Becca and I joined this group after we escaped from our old group. The leader was gonna kill a member for stealing supplies, so I took the keys to the RV that Becca and I were in and drove off," said Shel.

"As for Lucy, we found her wandering down a street. She said that her mom and dad were dead, so we let her join our group," said Becca. Ben's eyes widened when she said his parents were dead.

"Who's the leader of your group?", asked Vince.

"Well, Lee was, until he died," said Jeremy. "Right now, Kenny and Carley have sort of been giving orders."

Lucy looked up at Ben and asked, "Where's Travis?"

Ben sadly looked at her and remembered the times when Travis would play with her whenever he came over to his house.

"He's dead," he told her. "Oh," Lucy said as she looked down sadly.

...

...

A little after their conversation with the survivors, Anne stood by a table and took a sip of her Pepsi. Becca then walked over to her and leaned against the table.

"So, you've been surviving for months with a group this big?", Becca asked as she gestured to the group.

"Yep. After we lost Kenny's son, we've been making sure that no one else in our group get's bitten or killed," Anne said.

Becca then looked at Jamie and Billy, who were playing Go Fish with Lucy and Clementine.

"What's their story?", she asked.

"Well, when we met them, they said that their hometown was invaded by walkers. Their mom told them to get away from their town as far away as possible," Anne said. She glanced at the two before whispering, "I... don't think their mom made it."

"Oh. That sucks," Becca said as she looked down.

As the two girls chatted, Ulrich talked with Russell.

"So you guys came all the way from France?", asked Russell.

"Yep. We were invited to come and visit Patrick with Jeremy," said Ulrich. "Odd was the first one to agree to go because he wanted to get away from school. We never expected to find a zombie in the forest while we were hanging out in the park."

Meanwhile, Jeremy, Aelita, and Carley chatted with Shel.

"It must be hard for you. You know, since you lost another member of your group," said Shel.

Carley sighed and looked down at the ground.

"Yeah... Lee and I were very close," she said. "I... I was in love with him."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Shel said with a look of sympathy.

Odd then walked over and said loudly, "I knew it!", earning two whacks on the back of the head.

"Shut up, Odd!", Jeremy and Aelita shouted in annoyance.

Later...

Ulrich walked over to Clementine, who was sitting by the fire.

"Hey Clem," the brunet said as he knelt down. Clementine looked up at the older boy.

"Hi," she greeted.

"You still feeling sad?", he asked. Clementine nodded.

"A little," she replied.

"I think I know something that'll cheer you up," Ulrich said. "This one time, Odd gave an embarrassing picture of Yumi in a Halloween costume to Milly and Tamiya, our school's news reporters. When Yumi found out, Odd tricked me into taking the blame, so she was mad at me for the rest of the day. After we got back from a mission on Lyoko, Odd decided to tell her the truth. The next day, she got us back by taking a picture of us and giving it to the school newspaper. When I found out, I chased Odd all over the school."

Clementine smiled a little bit. "What did you do once you caught him?", she asked.

Ulrich grinned. "I shoved him into a garbage can. By the time he got out, he stunk so bad that no one in the school would go near him."

Clementine giggled, imagining Odd with stink lines coming off him.

"Hey, Ulrich!"

The brunet turned around to find Odd standing behind them.

"What're you talking about?", the blonde asked. Clementine and Ulrich gave each other a look and said, "Nothing."

"Anyway, Carley, Lilly, Anne, Kenny, Aelita, Jeremy, and I are going hunting, you wanna come?", he asked. "Uh... sure," Ulrich said as he got up.

"Can we come?", Jamie asked as she and Billy walked over to them.

"Promise to stick close to us?", asked Odd. They both nodded in unison.

"Hey Shel, can I go?", Becca asked. "I'm not sure that's a good idea," her older sister said.

"Carley's a good shot, a REALLY good shot, so she should be safe with us," said Anne.

"OK, but I'm coming with you, just in case," said Shel.

"Alright then. Yumi, Christa, and Vince, you keep watch. Keep the fire down while we're gone," Lilly said as the group of twelve left the camp.

...

...

As they walked through the forest, Becca got bored, so she decided to poke Anne in the shoulder. Anne poked her back. Becca returned the poke. They kept poking each other until it turned into a slap fight.

"Don't make me come back there!", Aelita said over her shoulder.

"Well, she started it!", Anne shouted as she shoved Becca away from her.

"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it!", Aelita said as Carley and Shel broke up the fight.

Jeremy smiled and rolled his eyes. "Hey you might wanna keep it down. Remember, you can't make a lot of noise when you're looking for food," he said.

He then stopped walking.

"What is it?", asked Aelita.

"I think I see something. Get down!", he whispered as everyone ducked down. Odd peeked out from behind a tree. Several feet away was a deer.

"Alright," he said with a smile. Lilly got her rifle out but Odd stopped her.

"No, that would make noise. Besides, I can make the shot," he said as he got his crossbow ready. He placed the arrow in and aimed it at the deer. He then fired it, but the deer moved and the arrow hit a tree, scaring it as it ran away.

Ulrich smirked. "You can make the shot, huh?", he asked.

"Shut up," Odd grumbled as he got up and walked over to the tree the arrow hit. As he pulled it out, he heard some growling. The others heard it too. "Jamie, Billy, stay close to us," he ordered as everyone got their weapons ready. Slowly, they walked towards the sound of the growling. Jeremy stopped in his tracks once he saw what was making the noise.

"Holy...", he said trailing off. On the ground was a walker who was missing the bottom half of it's body. It's spinal cord was hanging out along with some entrails. Ulrich gagged at the sight. When Jamie and Billy saw the walker, they gasped.

"What's wrong?", Carley asked as she knelt down to their level.

"It's... it's...", Jamie said as tears streamed down her face.

"It's Mom...", Billy finished. They gasped.

"I remember she got bit on the arm while we were making our way out of our hometown. There was also a bunch of walkers behind us, and they must've caught her," said Billy.

Everyone was silent. Odd, who was doing everything he could to protect the two, had a look of sadness on his face. Anne, the girl who was usually looking at the bright side, looked at the walker on the ground with pity. Lilly frowned even more, remembering the day her mother died and how her father died weeks ago. Carley's eyes turned from bright green to a reptile green color when she saw the walker. When she looked at the walker, she thought about Lee, how he was bitten, and how he died.

Aelita, who's mother was taken away from her when she was very young, felt tears streaming down her face. Seeing her own mother kidnapped was bad enough, but seeing Jamie and Billy's mother as a walker on the ground was even worse.

Shel, who was doing everything she could to protect Becca, looked at the walker with sympathy. Kenny, who had lost his wife and son, couldn't even think of what to say as he stared at the walker.

Ulrich had a look on his face that couldn't be read. As he stared at the walker, he thought about his mother, and wondered if she was still alive along with his father.

Jeremy looked down so no one could see his face while tears fell from his eyes and onto the ground.

"We can't let her suffer like this," he said as he wiped away a tear. "Who should do it?"

"The sound would just attract the walkers," Kenny pointed out. Ulrich looked at his katana and shook his head. "I... I can't do it," he said. "Not in front of them."

"Carley... can you take Billy and Jamie somewhere so they won't have to see it?", Odd asked. Carley nodded and gently took the two kids away from the sight.

Odd and Jeremy knelt down. The walker looked at them, growled, and weakly reached at them.

"Hey...", Jeremy began to say. "I'm sorry that this happened to you."

"We found your kids. Don't worry, we'll keep them safe for you," said Odd.

Anne and Kenny then took their hats off in respect. Shel, Lilly, Ulrich, and Becca looked away as Odd placed an arrow in his crossbow and aimed it at the walker's head.

He pulled the trigger and the arrow went straight into it's head. The walker went limp as the arrow hit it. Odd pulled it out and looked at the others.

"We should get back to camp...", he said.

"What about food?", asked Jeremy. "We can do it tomorrow," said Kenny. They then walked away from the sight and found Carley, Jamie, and Billy standing behind a tree.

"Is.. is it over?", asked Jamie. Lilly nodded.

"Come on. Let's go," she said as the group silently walked back to the camp.


End file.
